Eddie Izzard to play a young Edward VII

Opposite Judi Dench as Victoria

Eddie Izzard is to play a young Edward VII in a film starring Judi Dench as Queen Victoria.

The comic will portray Edward, or 'Bertie', when he was still Prince of Wales in Stephen Frears’s movie Victoria and Abdul.

Dench is reprising the role of Victoria which she previously played alongside another comic icon, Billy Connolly, in Mrs Brown.

The new film tells the true story of the unexpected friendship the monarch struck with Abdul Karim, a young clerk who travelled from India for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

Karim is said to help Victoria ‘see a changing world through new eyes’, despite the royal household trying to destroy their relationship.

The screenplay is by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall and based on Shrabani Basu’s book of the same name.

It is not the first time Dench has worked with Frears, as she starred in Philomena, which he directed based on a script co-written with Steve Coogan.

Co-financed by BBC Films and made by Working Title, Victoria and Abdul is slated to go into production this year for a release in 2017. Izzard's role was revealed by Daily Mail theatre writer Baz Bamigboye in a tweet:

Bertie: @eddieizzard will portray Prince of Wales in #Victoria&Abdul dir StephenFrears opp #JudiDench & @alifazal9 pic.twitter.com/nXGYutCU3E
— Baz Bamigboye (@BazBam) August 4, 2016