Tom Hiddleston performed a song from his first acting role as Toad Of Toad Hall as he was joined by the Duchess of Cornwall to honour winners of a children’s creative writing competition.

He treated the finalists of Radio 2′s 500 Words short story competition to a brief rendition of “Beep beep crackle bang” on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe after telling host Chris Evans that Wind In The Willows was the first school play he was in.

After Chris asked for a performance, the star of The Night Manager said: “I walked right into that one” before launching into: “Crackle bang, crackle bang, like a a vintage car, hey!”

Tom, who is widely touted to be in the running to take over the role of James Bond from Daniel Craig, was tight-lipped when Chris asked him: “What have you been reading? Anything by Ian Fleming? Just checking.”

He was joined by stars including Julie Walters, Andy Serkis and Nick Jonas to read out the winning stories in the competition, which were announced during Evans’ Radio 2 breakfast show broadcast live from the theatre.

Actors Julie Walters and Tom Hiddleston embrace during the live broadcast of the final of BBC Radio 2's 500 Words creative writing competition at Shakespeare's Globe in London.
Tom with Julie Walters (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Tom read out the story that won the silver prize in the 10 to 13 years category, The Sands Of Time by Clara Cowan, 10, from Glasgow, while Andy read out the silver winner in the five to nine years category, The Grannies Who Flew To The Moon by Katie Denyer, nine, from Surrey.

Julie read out the gold medal winning story from the five to nines, Poor Pig’s Revenge by Evie Fowler, nine, from Kent and Jonas read e-COURTROOM.com by Ned Marshall from mid Wales, who won in the 10 to 13 category.

The bronze winners were The Great Cookie Quest by Ben Bailey, 10, from Gloucestershire and The Smoking Pipe by Fergus Gathorne-Hardy, eight, from Suffolk. The stories were read by Harry Potter actor Warwick Davis and Game Of Thrones star Raleigh Ritchie respectively.