Queen Elizabeth's staff believe they're in 'happiness business'

London Mercury (ANI) Saturday 4th February, 2012

Queen Elizabeth is always surrounded by a "lot of laughter" and her Ladies in Waiting say that they are in the "happiness business".

Broadcaster Andrew Marr has followed the monarch for a documentary to mark her Diamond Jubilee in June and said that he found there was always a spirit of cheerfulness around her.

"When a dress designer arrived from Scotland, determined to measure her in person, she entered cheerfully into the spirit of it, sticking out her limbs - 'leg out!', 'arm out!'. There's a lot of laughter," Contactmusic quoted Marr as telling Radio Times Magazine.

"One of her Ladies in Waiting told me, as they entered another civic hall to shrill cheering, 'We're in the happiness business,'" he said.

In making the documentary, 'Diamond Queen', Marr found that most people praise the queen as "witty" and a clever conversationalist.

"I found very many people - politicians, civil servants, friends of the family - talking at length about how witty the queen is," he said.

"[Politician] Douglas Hurd pointed out how clever she was at nudging conversations that were becoming tricky onto a different track with hardly anyone noticing," he said. (ANI)