The Stephen Frears film The Queen tells the tale of the days after Princess Diana's death and how it affected the Royal Family and what went on in Downing Street and Balmoral. However, the screenwriter Peter Morgan is very keen for us to know it's not a factual documentary.

'I've done my reading and gone away and written a script about individuals. If I was writing about Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, no one would be asking me this.'

Frears confirms the non-factual side in the article on Timeout, and puts down the questions he's been receiving about the Royal family's involvement and what is and isn't real in the film:

'I don't think Richard III appeared on Bosworth Hill saying, "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"' argues Frears. 'That attitude completely fails to understand the role of the imagination.'

I think it's quite nieve of someone to enter into this topic not expecting this kind of questioning though. I mean this is a major point in the history of the Royal family, not just from the controversy of Diana's death, or the shouts of conspiracy, but from how the Royal's changed publicly after this event.

The film will show such events as the Queen having an epiphony while driving in the woods by herself and watching TV while lying in bed and chatting to Tony Blair on the telephone. These things are pushing deep into the private life of the Royal's and are extremely speculative and attention grabbing from both the press and the public.

Interestingly Morgan wrote Henry VIII (TV), The Last King of Scotland and The Other Boleyn Girl, and I can see myself asking these questions about both these films, how much of it is reality? It's a perfectly acceptable question when you're creating a film based on true events and characters.