'˜Queen' drops in at hotel!

But that’s what Her Majesty appears to be doing in the Elgin Hotel’s new video. However a closer look reveals flamboyant hotelier Nigel Seddon is actually the regal visitor – accompanied by entertainer Tony Fletcher as James Bond. The fun-loving pair have recreated the scenes from the opening of the 2012 London Olympics when Bond and the Queen appeared to arrive by helicopter together for the opening ceremony. Timed to mark the start of the Rio Olympics, the £7,000 video took four days to make at the start of last month. Nigel, who is a director of both The Elgin Hotel and Hotel Sheraton on Queens Promenade, said: “Everyone loved the arrival of The Queen and James Bond at London 2012. I wanted to recreate that fun British moment and give it a unique British staycation feel.” After being collected from Leighton Hall at Carnforth (which stands in for Buckingham Palace), the intrepid duo are flown by helicopter over Blackpool, where the crowds waving flags along the Promenade include school children from Unity Academy, staff from Sandcastle Waterpark, Bradley and Bella Beaver at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Blackpool Transport staff and even some local police officers. Also starring in the film as the Queen’s butler is Robert McLoughlin, maitre d’ at the Elgin. ‘Bond’ finally abseils down the front of the Hotel Sheraton and the ‘Queen’ down the front of the Elgin Hotel before going inside to be warmly welcomed for their stay. Nigel added: “We wanted to do something different to promote the hotel and came up with this idea as a bit of a giggle. “It was quite complex to organise, for instance we had to hire two helicopters - one to fly in and one to do the filming from. “There was also a drone used to film over Leighton Hall. “It was really good fun. I’m just an attention seeker so I decided to play the part of the Queen, and Tony is one of our entertainers. “Straight away we thought of using Leighton Hall as Buckingham Palace, and we know the people there and they were great about it. “A friend lent us his Aston Martin for some of the shots, and we hired the helicopters from Helivation at Blackpool Airport. “One of the cameramen we used films the Tour de France from the back of a motorcycle, and we had him on a harness hanging out of a helicopter. “We wanted to make it as quirky as possible. “It has already had a good response from people, which isn’t bad considering we are just a bunch of amateurs!” To view the video go to www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk