The only time I admit to being starstruck was courtesy of the Queen, who I was called upon by the National Portrait Gallery to photograph at Buckingham Palace in 2002 to commemorate her Golden Jubilee.

I told one of her assistants that I was really uncomfortable with the notion of bowing, and asked if it would be ok if I didn't. She said: "She'll be fine with it but she'll be a bit disappointed", but I was expecting her to be very sombre anyway.

Then I was waiting for her in the throne room, and I saw her walking down this long corridor, and she was with this really tall, really good looking footman who was escorting her, and she was looking up at him and laughing, really laughing, and then she walked into the room and whoomph, without even realising, I was doing the whole bowing thing, and trying to remember to say ma'am like "jam".

She really made me laugh. I can't remember any of the jokes she said, or anything other than her saying hello and goodbye, but she was very funny and jokey. And I was determined to capture that, so I think I went all Austin Powers on her to make her laugh-­‐ I was like "Ma'am, could you smile, could you smile please ma'am, please smile...".

I sent two versions of the portrait to Buckingham Palace, one with the throne room as a backdrop, the other with Her Majesty flanked by the Union Jack. While the Palace pushed for tradition, the Queen sent a message of her own. We got a letter back from the Palace saying we prefer the throne room but the Queen would like to let you know that she really liked the stitching on the flag, which I thought was very clever.

Rankin

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