In the Crown she portrays the late Queen partying as a teenager on VE Day with her sister Princess Margaret.
But in real life, a night out for rising star Viola Prettejohn is even more lively.
The 20-year-old adopted what she called a ‘disco cowgirl’ look for a wild night out in Cardiff – ripped denim miniskirt, sparkly top and a lumberjack shirt.
She was joined at party bar Revolution by three friends, also in fancy dress, before posting their antics on Instagram.
Miss Prettejohn was educated at the £30,000-a-year St Paul’s Girls’ School in West London – although she may have missed a spelling class or two as she captioned the photos: ‘A disco cowgirl, a scarlett witch, a saloon wench and a baby guinness walk into a bar…’
In the Crown she portrays the late Queen partying as a teenager on VE Day with her sister Princess Margaret
But in real life, a night out for rising star Viola Prettejohn is even more lively
The actress has made no secret about her love of a booze-fuelled bar crawl in the Welsh capital, where she has been filming a gory new Channel 4 zombie series called Generation Z. ‘It’s a really good, trashy night out, which I love,’ she told City AM earlier this month. ‘I like starting with nice cocktails and then slowly going more divey until I’m really at a trash place.’
It might not be regal behaviour, but Miss Prettejohn has been hailed the ‘saviour’ of the final series of The Crown, following a string of controversies about the way the Netflix series has portrayed reality.
In the drama, she plays the 19-year-old Queen Elizabeth, who sneaked out of Buckingham Palace on VE Day with Princess Margaret to join the crowds celebrating the end of the Second World War.
Forty years later, the late Queen recalled the evening as ‘one of the most memorable nights of my life’, describing how people filled Whitehall, ‘swept along on a tide of happiness and relief’.
Miss Prettejohn – who admits ‘I’ve never had any strong opinions about the royals’ – auditioned four times for The Crown after talent agents came to her school.
The daughter of TSB chairman Nick Prettejohn, she grew up in a £3.8 million townhouse in Kensington, West London, where she still lives.
She said she ‘never intended to be an actor’ until her drama teacher put her up for auditions aged 14.
The daughter of TSB chairman Nick Prettejohn, left, she grew up in a £3.8 million townhouse in Kensington, West London, where she still lives
