Olivia Colman’s The Crown confession: ‘Not allowed’

Olivia Colman as the Queen in the third season of The Crown. Photo / Supplied

The woman who played The Crown’s Queen Elizabeth in season 3 and 4 may have been also been a petty criminal according to the rules of the show’s set.

According to the New York Post, Olivia Colman, 48, has confessed to taking a small memento which appeared in her very first scene as Her Majesty.

“On my first day on The Crown, which was about the stamp thing, there was an envelope on the desk, and it was, ‘To her Majesty, the Queen’ — and it had my face on a stamp,” she revealed on The Graham Norton Show.

Said to be captivated by the keepsake, as much as her character Elizabeth was in the scene, Colman tried to slip the stamp with her face on it into her pocket.

Olivia Colman portraying Queen Elizabeth II in a scene from the third season of "The Crown," left, and Queen Elizabeth II at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. Photo / AP

A crew member noticed her sneaky move but gave Colman a kind nod of approval.

“It was a lovely props person who said, ‘I’m not allowed to do this, but take that,’” Colman claimed.

The Oscar-winning actress has also spoken out about the late Queen Elizabeth who died in September last year, aged 96.

Of Her Majesty’s dedication to her role, Colman told Variety, “I wouldn’t know where to begin with that.

“She made a promise as a young woman, and she absolutely kept it with such dignity. We’re all incredibly impressed by what she did.”

The Crown has been a successful yet contentious series for Netflix with depictions of members of the royal family and their lives creating equal parts animosity and intrigue.

Season 5 premiered in November and filming for season 6, which will portray the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, is under way.