"The 67-year-old Mirren rises to the daunting technical challenge with a quite uncannily fluid lightness of touch as she shifts back and forth on an age-spectrum of six decades, " wrote The Independent's Paul Taylor.

BBC: Helen Mirren is 'magnificent' as the Queen in The Audience

At that depth stopping the flow with a deadweight of drilling fluid should create few problems, once the exceedingly difficult challenge of hitting the well is met.

ECONOMIST: The Gulf oil spill