I have always imagined that the Queen would be a big film fan and here she – when she was still Princess Elizabeth – is visiting the Studios – in this case Ealing Studios – to see something of the making of ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ which was released here in early April of 1947 – so it would be fair to say that this picture was taken during the summer of 1946 – not long after the War.

Here is Princess Elizabeth as she was then, with her Sister Princess Margaret being shown round by Michael Balcon LEFT and Reginald Baker

BELOW – A similar Photograph from a different angle

I do know that she also visited Denham in the Summer of 1951 where she watched scenes being films of ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ at Denham Film Studios.

In Richard Todd’s Autobiography – he played Robin Hood – he mentions that Walt Disney came over to Denham near the end of June 1951 and apparently he was very pleased with the way the filming was progressing.

Coinciding with Walt Disney’s stop over, the then Princess Elizabeth paid a visit to Denham Film Studios accompanied only be her Lady In Waiting and equerry. The future Queen was shown by Walt Disney and the Art Director Carmen Dillon around the outside sets and the costume department.  Perce Pearce the Producer of the film insisted that filming should continue as normal as that is what the young Princess wanted to see. So for about twenty minutes the young princess stood quietly in a dark corner, while filming carried on, then she gave a friendly wave and slipped out from the Sound Stage. We have no idea which scene she saw being filmed.

ABOVE – maybe this is the scene she saw being shot – I don’t think it is because this was later in the film and for some reason I think that filming was probably in sequence rather than disjointed as it sometimes is.

It could have been this scene in Robin Hood’s camp ABOVE