Paddington became a symbol of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II last September

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Ben Whishaw has paid tribute to the Queen’s performance in her platinum jubilee sketch with Paddington Bear, saying it was brilliant.

The actor, who is the voice of Paddington in Paul King’s two hit films, starred alongside the Queen in a short clip broadcast during her platinum party at the Buckingham Palace celebrations in June.

The sketch featured Paddington, created by Michael Bond, visiting the Queen for tea — and making several errors of etiquette. It saw Paddington become a symbol of national mourning following her death last September.

In the latest edition of ES Magazine, Whishaw, 42, is believed to make his first interview comments about the collaboration, revealing that he did not meet the Queen during the filming of the sketch — instead he was informed about the proposal via a secret email from the palace — but felt that it came together perfectly. “I thought that she did that so brilliantly,” he said.

Whishaw also told how playing a junior doctor in the BBC adaptation of Adam Kay’s best-selling medical memoir, This is Going to Hurt, brought home the issues experienced by those working in the NHS.

“Everyone I speak to has someone who can’t be seen, someone whose parent has been sitting on a bed in a corridor for days, or waiting hours or days for ambulances to come,” he said. “I mean, I don’t understand how we’re all not on the streets, basically.”

Whishaw is starring in Women Talking, an adaptation of Miriam Toews’s 2018 novel. Directed by Sarah Polley, it follows a group of women living in a colony who were drugged and raped for many years.