It was the movie hit that depicted the controversial relationship between Queen Victoria and her trusted Scottish servant John Brown.
Now Sir Billy Connolly, who played the Highland ghillie in Mrs Brown, has revealed the close bond he and co-star Dame Judi Dench have formed in the 28 years since the movie’s release.
The story concerns the widowed Queen Victoria, Brown, and the gossip and scandal that surrounded their ‘friendship’.
In a weekend interview Sir Billy said of his rapport with Dame Judy: ‘We are great mates. She phones me all the time. She just sent me a message on my phone. She was standing at the grave of John Brown – the guy I played.’
It was even rumoured the monarch and Brown had a long-running love affair.
Connolly added: ‘All I knew about Brown was he’d had it off with the Queen – what else do you need to know?’
Dame Judy won a Bafta and a Golden Globe plus an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the film while Sir Billy was shortlisted for a BAFTA.
Sir Billy and Dame Judi -pictured at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 – have remained close
The pair grew close while filming Mrs Brown in which Dame Judi played Queen Victoria
The veteran comic now enjoys life in the US with wife Pamela Stephenson, 75, and is still going strong having made 54 films and despite being diagnosed with Parkinsons in 2013.
He said: ‘I’m 82 and I’ve lived a long time. I’ve had a good, happy life. I’ve seen a lot of great things. I’ve done a lot of great things.’
Sir Billy’s comments come after Dame Judi previously revealed how he reduced her to helpless laughter while she was trying to play the famously straight-laced Queen Victoria.
The veteran actress, previously recalled how, while shooting a serious scene for her acclaimed film Sir Billy, made an irreverent joke that left her unable to stay in character.
Dame Judi told how the comic incident came as they were filming for the 1997 film at Victoria’s holiday home Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She was on horseback in the side-saddle position riding alongside Connolly’s character John Brown.
But during what was intended to be a poignant scene in which Victoria expressed her fondness for him, her horse audibly broke wind.
Recalling how Connolly was a ‘cheeky chappy’, she said in Dame Esther Rantzen in the That’s After Life podcast: ‘There’s that shot of us at Osborne on the pony walking away, taken from right up, of us walking along this path.
Dame Judi has said she found it hard to keep a straight face during filming with comic Sir Billy
‘I got on to this pony which I had to do from a pair of library stairs because riding side saddle is one thing, but riding side saddle in a corset with an enormously heavy costume…
‘But the poor pony, for goodness sake, all one side, and as we walked so the pony farted at every single step we took, and Billy said, “Is that you, Is it you?”
Directors repeatedly filmed the scene to cut out the sound of the horse so it did not feature in the film – which depicted the unlikely close friendship between Victoria and her servant after the death of her husband Prince Albert.
The was asked whether she believed Victoria had, ‘more than a friendship’ with Mr Brown.
Dame Judi who won Bafta and Golden Globe Awards as best actress for her role in the film, replied: ‘Well she did go to her grave with his portrait in her hand – a painting of him.
‘So maybe she was a bit susceptible to, well we know she was, so I think yes, I think probably.
‘There was no doubt obviously that he was an enormous comfort and confidante of hers and somebody who didn’t fall into the same category as everybody else in the court, and was somewhere where she could escape to.’