Dame Helen hands over the crown

KRISTIN Scott Thomas will inherit Dame Helen Mirren’s role as the Queen in an updated version of hit play T he Audience, while its original star takes the show to Broadway.

The play, inspired by the private weekly meetings between the monarch and Britain’s prime ministers – 12 in all – over her six-decade reign, will return to London in April.

Dame Helen’s performance made it one of the hottest tickets in London’s theatreland and producers will hope for a repeat when the new version opens at the Apollo Theatre.

The updated play will include scenes with former Labour prime minister Tony Blair, who was not in the original.

Dame Helen is on Broadway from February until June.