Dame Helen Mirren is to reprise the role that won her a much-coveted Oscar award by playing Elizabeth II in a new play by Peter Morgan called The Audience. Morgan wrote the script for The Queen that, in 2006, catapulted Mirren to that rarest of acting highs as she scooped the Acadamy's best actress award as she portrayed the head of the UK monarchy.

Morgan's credits on the stage also include the excellently received Frost/Nixon which went on to be made into a feature length film, whilst on the big screen his screenplay credits include The Last King Of Scotland and The Damned United. Following on from The Queen which took place during the days immediately after Princess Diana's death, this new play will convey a series of conversations that the monarch has had with the 12 Prime Ministers to have passed through 10 Downing Street during Elizabeth's time on the throne.

"From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional - sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive," reads a press release re-published by the BBC. The play will be directed by Billy Elliott director Stephen Daldry. The play is due to open in London in February of next year and will run until June.