The Crown star Olivia Colman has explained why she won’t be reaching out to her successor Imelda Staunton to offer any tips on playing the Queen.

After two seasons at the helm of the royal Netflix drama, Oscar winner Olivia is now set to hand over the throne to Imelda, who will play Queen Elizabeth II for the last two series of The Crown.

In a new interview with Radio Times, Olivia insisted she won’t be offering any advice on the role to Imelda, claiming her replacement will “do it all much better than me” on her own.

“Me? I haven’t spoken to Imelda and I wouldn’t dare offer any advice about playing the Queen,” Olivia said.

“Imelda is extraordinary and she’s going to do it all much better than me. I can’t wait to watch what she does.”

In a recent interview with co-star Emma Corrin shared on Netflix’s YouTube page, Olivia was asked “what advice would you give to the next actor to play the Queen”, to which she responded: “I wouldn’t. It’s Imelda Staunton. Imagine me giving her advice.”

She did reveal in the same video that she’d reached out to her predecessor, Claire Foy, before signing up for the role, who told her: “[The Crown] is the happiest job… you get really looked after, it’s lovely, do it.”

For the forthcoming series of The Crown, Imelda will be joined by Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip and Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, taking over from Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham-Carter, respectively.

Elizabeth Debicki will succeed Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in the new series, while Dominic West has been heavily tipped to be playing Prince Charles, a role currently played by Josh O’Connor.

Read Olivia Colman’s full interview in the new issue of Radio Times.