The Queen attended the Royal Film Performance at the Odeon in Leicester Square, central London, last night, where she met the director and cast of this year's film, Ladies in Lavender. The movie, which stars Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith, is the directorial debut of the actor Charles Dance.

Set in 1936, it tells the story of two ageing spinster sisters whose peaceful life in Cornwall is disrupted when they rescue a handsome young man who washes up on a beach.

Receipts from ticket sales will benefit the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund, of which the Queen has been patron for 52 years.

The Royal Film Performance, which was known until 1948 as the Royal Command Film Performance, is one of the highlights of the film industry's year. It began in 1896 when the pioneering cinematographer Birt Acres asked to be allowed to exhibit a film he had taken the previous month of the Prince and Princess of Wales attending the Cardiff exhibition.