A VILLAGE business is moving in regal quarters after it was commissioned to design costumes for a new adaptation about the life of The Queen.

Harlequin, which his based in Little Bromley, has designed fabrics, belts and bags for the Royal family.

It has also stepped in to design clothes for popular TV shows, including Downton Abbey and Outlander.

The small but prestigious business was approached by Left Bank Pictures in May.

The production company wanted costume parts for their new project, a £100million Netflix adaptation of the life of the Queen called The Crown.

The Crown traces the Queen’s life from her wedding in 1947 to the present day. It is expected to span 60 episodes over six seasons.

Neil Stock, the owner of Harlequin, who is also the leader of Tendring Council, only realised the parts had been used for costumes when he sat down to watch the show as a fan.

He said: “It was quite funny because I was watching with my partner. There was a part set in 1951 and the Queen comes out wearing this amazing dress.

“We noticed some of our designs and that’ s how I realise we’d made stuff for the show.

“We had been making stuff for Left Bank Pictures since about May last year - but we never knew it was for this show. ”

He added: “We’ve done other stuff for them before, we were featured on their show Outlander too.

“It is fabrics, mainly belts - we have made belts for the Queen ’s dress maker before.

“I remember once we had to make a clutch bag when she was about to go on a royal tour of Australia - we had to address it to her at Buckingham Palace.

“We are obviously all chuffed to see something like that on such a popular show makes us proud.”