Dame Helen Mirren – who is playing the Queen in a new film – has praised her "incredible virtues".

The actress stars as the monarch in Stephen Frears' The Queen, a movie about the events after Princess Diana's death in 1997. Mirren said: "I'd be devastated if she feels that I've betrayed her in my portrayal of her."

Working on the film gave her a great admiration for the Queen, Mirren told W magazine. "Even as a young girl, she believed in duty and self-sacrifice. All of those things are sneered at these days, but I find them incredible virtues.

"So I really got to love the Queen by playing her."