Broadcaster and author Gyles Brandreth, a family friend of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh has described her “wry sense of humour” and “electric smile”.
Mr Brandreth described how she was a “different person for different generations” and praised her for “keeping in touch”.
From fist-bumps to mobile phones, the late monarch did her best to keep up with societal changes.
And he described how she enjoyed acting as a child, recalling her performance with Paddington Bear during the jubilee celebrations earlier this year as “enchanting”.
Mr Brandreth, who was a close friend of Philip, said the death of the duke was “considerable” for the Queen as he was the last person she could be “normal” around.
He told BBC Breakfast: “She was extraordinary and it wasn’t simply because she was the Queen, I think it was the nature of her personality.
“That smile was electric.
“As the Queen grew older, she was conscious that her face sometimes looked a little bit grumpy unless she was smiling so she did flash that smile, but it was unbelievable.
“It really could light up a room.
“You saw it in that picture taken only on Tuesday, looking rather impish, clearly an elderly frail person, and yet with a twinkle in her eye.
“She had a wry sense of humour. I think the only thing that wasn’t on public display as much as it might have been over the years was her great sense of humour – never malicious, it was worldly wise.”
He said the monarch “wouldn’t have minded” being an actress.
“She was a different person for different generations, but my goodness, didn’t she do well to keep in touch?” he said.
“She could actually do a fist bump, she didn’t like mobile phones at the dining table, but she did know how to use one.
“To see her with Paddington Bear, just this last summer, only a few months ago, was a complete enchantment.
“I think that she wouldn’t have minded being an actress. I once had a conversation with her about Windsor Castle. She talked about the war and when she appeared in Christmas pantomimes, and said she’d rather enjoyed being principal boy.
“I said, ‘Would you like to be an actress?’
“‘Well, maybe’.
“We could see that at the end of her life – what a brilliant actress she would have been.”
When you were with her she was very much herself, she was very unaffected, she was very easy to be with— Gyles Brandreth
He said the Queen “never expressed admiration” for world leaders but had particular admiration for Nelson Mandela.
“At age 96, she met 15 British prime ministers, when you remember that first prime minister was Winston Churchill, who was born in 1874, the most recent Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was born in 1975 – a span of 100 years.
“She delivered one-to-one with all the world’s leaders that she met as the ambassador for the United Kingdom as the head of the Commonwealth – somebody who knew everybody, who literally had met every world leader… every United States president from President Truman onwards.
“She never expressed particular admiration for people even if you tried to test her, though I think she had a particular respect for Nelson Mandela because, as she said, she admired what he did in prison and emerged without rancour.
“She was a person who had no rancour. She was gracious, she was good. She was an example to us all. She was the best of us. And I think that brought out the best in us.”
He added: “She didn’t let her private life go into the public area, and she didn’t give interviews, but when you were with her she was very much herself, she was very unaffected, she was very easy to be with.
“I say that, but of course she was also the Queen and there was an always invisible moat around her because nobody ever treated the Queen quite normally.
“For her, I think the loss of a mother and her sister, and then her husband – the three people who could simply treat her as a woman – that was very considerable for her, because nobody else was entirely normal with her.
“Her children, of course, but even they would bow and curtsey to her at the beginning of each day.”
