LONDON — Within the days after Queen Elizabeth II’s demise final 12 months, Charles Haslett, 66, together with many different Britons, was overcome with disappointment. However he didn’t have a lot time to linger on these emotions.

“I felt a weight of duty,” Mr. Haslett stated. “The time has come.”

Mr. Haslett, a longtime impersonator of the queen’s eldest son, Charles, spent greater than 5,000 kilos (about $6,200) “getting myself to be extra kinglike than I used to be,” he stated. That concerned shopping for a made-to-order toupee of grey hair, in addition to two double-breasted fits and a gold signet ring in the identical type as the one worn by the brand new monarch, King Charles III. Mr. Haslett additionally ordered modeling clay to make his ears stick out similar to the king’s.

Because the king, 74, is settling into his new function, so are those that bear a powerful resemblance to His Majesty and impersonate him at fund-raising occasions, raffles, coronation celebrations and company events. After years of struggling to get bookings, Charles look-alikes stated they had been loving their newfound limelight.

Man Ingle, 62, one other longtime Charles impersonator, stated he used to play second fiddle to Queen Elizabeth look-alikes, standing within the background at occasions.

“None of those queens had any expertise,” he stated. “It was very irritating.”

To make issues worse, he added, imitators of Charles’s son Prince William and his spouse, Catherine, all the time had much more work than Charles doubles.

As of late, nevertheless, Mr. Ingle stated he has been overwhelmed by the quantity of people that wish to rent him. “I used to be shocked I had a lot work coming in so quickly after Her Majesty handed away,” he stated, as he walked into the Queen’s Head, a pub in Ampthill, his hometown, about 50 miles northwest of London. “The dilemma is which of them do you do?”

Mr. Ingle has 12 bookings this spring and stated his charges have doubled since Charles ascended the throne in September. (He declined to debate how a lot he makes however stated he as soon as earned about 800 kilos (roughly $980) for an look at a celebration celebrating the opening of a brand new terminal at Heathrow Airport.)

One other Charles look-alike, Ian Lieber, a retired inside designer, just lately signed up with an agent. After a long time of being approached by strangers who mistook him for Charles, Mr. Lieber, 81, stated he thought he may as effectively go skilled. “It’s simply lifting you right into a world of fantasy, actually,” he stated, noting that he has one reserving for an look at a company luncheon, and another potential alternatives, together with an look at a bar mitzvah.

In previous years, at the same time as requests rolled in for impersonators of different royals, there was little demand for Charles doubles, stated Susan Scott, an agent for look-alikes. “They’d a protracted wait,” she stated.

Mr. Haslett chalked up the low demand to Charles not being “as squeaky clear” as his mom, a reference to his turbulent marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, and his infidelity. Extra just lately, a report discovered that certainly one of his charities had accepted a donation of £1 million ($1.2 million) from the household of Osama bin Laden.

Charles, who was first in line to the throne for longer than anybody within the historical past of the British monarchy, has not achieved the identical reputation because the beloved queen. Simply over half of the British public has a good opinion of Charles, who’s much less fashionable than his sister, Princess Anne, and his son and daughter-in-law William and Catherine, in response to a January ballot of 1,000 British adults by Ipsos. (The king’s disgraced youthful brother, Prince Andrew, his youthful son, Prince Harry, and his spouse, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, had been the least fashionable members of the royal household in response to the survey, which was performed after the publication of Harry’s tell-all memoir, “Spare.”)

Ms. Scott, the look-alike agent, stated the unfavourable publicity surrounding Harry may truly profit King Charles, and subsequently Charles look-alikes. “Once you have a look at the remainder of them, he could possibly be the very best guess.”

Charles’s coronation will happen at Westminster Abbey on Could 6, the beginning of a protracted vacation weekend in Britain. Identical to in the course of the queen’s coronation 70 years in the past, a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals are anticipated to throng the streets of London. The occasion in 1953 was “a spectacle, breathtaking in its magnitude and brilliance,” in response to a front-page dispatch in The New York Occasions. Earlier than the coronation, transport officers arrange a particular bus service that gave royal followers a tour of the decorations round city for a shilling and 6 pence, or 21 cents on the time.

As Charles and Charles look-alikes put together for the coronation, queen imitators are realizing that the demand for them could also be over — in distinction to the seemingly eternal demand for Elvis Presley impersonators, who’re nonetheless performing lengthy after the singer’s demise.

One queen look-alike, Jeanette Vane, was nonetheless open to working, stated Ms. Scott, her agent. “She misses it terribly,” Ms. Scott stated.

One other queen look-alike, Mary Reynolds, is retiring out of respect for the queen, after 50 years of impersonating her. (Her final occasion was in Zurich only a few weeks earlier than the queen died.) Ms. Reynolds, 89, stated she turned down a reserving at Fortnum & Mason, the storied London tea emporium, a couple of months after the queen’s demise. The shop booked Mr. Ingle as Charles as an alternative.

Ms. Reynolds stated she has as an alternative targeted on serving to with the royal transition, giving wardrobe tricks to a girl who impersonates Camilla, King Charles’s spouse. “Even with the look-alikes, it’s form of like a household,” Ms. Reynolds stated.

Simon Watkinson, a Prince William impersonator, stated that as quickly as he heard the information in regards to the queen, he known as Ms. Reynolds to share condolences. “We’re fairly shut, the royal look-alike household, as a result of we accomplish that many roles collectively,” he stated.

Mr. Watkinson, an engineer from Australia, stated he turned an expert imitator after folks always stopped him on the streets of London pondering he was Prince William.

One of many doubtlessly awkward components of being a look-alike is operating into the actual factor. For Mr. Haslett, this occurred 24 years in the past, at an occasion at a London theater for Charles’s fiftieth birthday. Mr. Haslett was employed to be a Charles double within the viewers whereas Prince Charles made a shock look onstage.

Backstage after the present, Mr. Haslett approached the actual prince, who stated, “‘You’re simply right here to get data on your act, aren’t you?’” Mr. Haslett replied, “Sure sir, precisely.”