Helena Bonham Carter has said singing alongside Olivia Colman – her on-screen sister in Netflix’s The Crown – was a “fun” and “vulnerable” experience.

The actress, 53, takes over from Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in the third series of the hit Netflix show, while Colman, 45, takes over from Claire Foy as the Queen.

Both also appear on BBC Children In Need’s Got It Covered album, singing versions of songs significant to them.

Harry Potter star Bonham Carter has covered ballad Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell, while Colman has taken on Glory Box by trip-hop group Portishead.

Olivia Colman with Pudsey
Olivia Colman has also recorded a song for BBC Children In Need (BBC/Shutterstock/Ray Burmiston/PA)

She said: “It’s been so nice for me to see (song-writer) Guy (Chambers) again. We met weeks ago, all of us and Olivia, who I’m working with anyway.

“She’s playing my sister or I’m playing her sister in The Crown. That’s been fun.

“Everyone’s honestly vulnerable and just a lovely feel, it’s a great day out. We get all these extra privileges like recording at Abbey Road.

“We could only get here because we are doing it for charity.”

They also both sing on a group cover of It Must Be Love by Labi Siffre, made famous by the Madness version.

Adrian Lester, Jim Broadbent, Suranne Jones, Himesh Patel, Shaun Dooley, Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter in the studio (BBC/Ray Burmiston/PA)

An accompanying 90-minute film will follow the stars as they record at the famous Abbey Road and Rak studios in London to raise money for disadvantaged children and young people throughout the UK.

She added: “Guy Chambers phoned me up – who is an old friend – and he said, ‘Hel, will you do me a favour?’

“’I’m going to do this album for Children In Need and they’re thinking of people who would be up for singing a song, would you?’

“I know him and we have done odds and sods for each other and he knows I just love to sing, not that anybody else really loves to listen to me singing but I love it. So he said we could do this together and I said yes.

“If we were doing an album which required people to buy it, not for charity, then the pressure would be on but hopefully people will forgive us, it’s all for love, really.”