London:

Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday has sparked a renewed focus on Britain’s long-reigning monarch and for impersonator Elizabeth Richard that can only be a good thing.

In the past 14 years, Richard has used her uncanny resemblance to “Britain’s favourite granny” to become one of the country’s leading queen lookalikes and landmark royal celebrations mean more waving and smiling for her.

“It’s made a difference,” she told AFP from her London home as the real queen embarked on

a series of high profile, official engagements ahead of her birthday. “I’ve had more enquiries and a few more bookings come through. More work is coming in. I’m awfully busy.”

Given the real queen’s busy schedule — and the relatively low odds of most loyal subjects securing a royal one-to-one — people keen to be in the presence of “blue blood” have been turning to Richard and others like her instead.

“I’ve got a job on Thursday — it’s somebody’s 80th birthday party — and I’ve been pencilled in for Friday but I don’t know what,” she added, her light northeast England accent a marked contrast to the queen’s cut-glass tones.

During her time as “queen”, Richard — who insists the similarities stop at their features and shared height — has travelled the world, appearing in pop videos, films, adverts and television series.

Like other royal lookalikes, the paid-up member of actors’ union Equity was much in demand around the time of the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002, marking the queen’s 50 years on the throne.

But like the royal family itself, call for royal lookalikes ebbs and flows.

Prince Charles lookalike and soundalike Guy Ingle, 45, who often accompanies Richard on public engagements as “mother and son”, agrees. “When Charles announced he was going to get married to Camilla last year, within two minutes the phone was going like mad. I had a lot of work but it’s tailed off now,” he said.

Richard, a self-confessed “royalist at heart” says the queen is a “wonderful person” to imitate.

Ingle says he is happy to keep tugging at the cuffs of his double-breasted suit for a little bit longer but Richard would be more easily swayed to hang up her tiara. Perfecting the queen’s dress sense becomes more difficult for a retired lady “a few years short” of the queen’s age, she said, particularly on foreign assignments.

“If I suddenly came into a lot of money I would retire immediately because although there’s a lot of fun in it it’s quite hard when you don’t have a gentleman to help you. I’m looking for a Prince Philip,” she said.