SHE is said to be a fan of musicals, Vera Lynn and Fred Astaire.

And while her music taste may span the decades, the Queen showed she has a thoroughly modern way of listening to her favourite tunes as a new photograph of Balmoral shows an iPod in her drawing room.

The iPod, which does appear to be a slightly older model, is pictured on a docking station in the room where she held an audience with General Sir Peter Cosgrove, the governor-general of Australia.

The music player sits just below a portrait of the Queen's great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and her friend and attendant John Brown.