Children's Party at the Palace

The Children's Party at the Palace was an event organized by Peter Orton of Hit Entertainment and David Johnstone of DJI consult, held at Buckingham Palace Garden on 25 June 2006 in honour of the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The event, which had the theme British children's literature, was attended by 2,000 children and 1,000 adults^[1] who were chosen through a national ballot.^[2] On arrival all guests received a purple hamper with snacks put together by Jamie Oliver.^[3] For the occasion, the palace grounds were transformed into scenes from children's books including places like the Hundred Acre Wood and 80 costumed characters and a model of the BFG sitting at a huge piano.^[3] The grounds also had an author's corner where authors like J. K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Eric Hill and Raymond Briggs read from their books and signed autographs.^[4]

The Queen's Handbag

The main attraction of the party was a pantomime-style play called The Queen's Handbag, written by children's author and playwright David Wood OBE and directed by Sir Trevor Nunn,^[5] which was performed on a stage resembling Buckingham Palace and broadcast live on both BBC1 and the CBBC channel.

In the play, the baddies of children's literature were angry to find out none of them had been invited to the party, so they decided to ruin the party for the goodies too. After multiple failed attempts, one of them manages to steal the Queen's Handbag. Without its contents, her reading glasses, the Queen won't be able to deliver her closing speech. Multiple scenes of the play, including a scene starring Harry Potter and his friends, were pre-recorded and played on large video screens.^[6] The play ended with a rendition of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" by the entire cast, led by the London company of the musical Mary Poppins. Throughout the programme, the audience was kept up-to-date about the status of the missing handbag with reports from both BBC News and Crimewatch. The use of a fake newsflash caused complaints to be made to the BBC.^[7]

Cast

• Queen Elizabeth II as herself
• The Big Friendly Giant
• Sophie (The BFG), performed by the inspiration for the character, Sophie Dahl
• Mr. Tibbs (The BFG) (Ronnie Corbett)
• Mary from The BFG (Meera Syal)
• Thomas The Tank Engine
• The Fat Controller (Jonathan Ross)
• Angelina Ballerina
• Dennis and Gnasher
• Postman Pat
• The Gruffalo
• The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland (Joe Pasquale)
• Peter Pan (Kacey Ainsworth) and the Lost Boys
• Wendy from Peter Pan (Kelly Osbourne)
• Robin Hood (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and his Merry Men
• Tracy Beaker (Dani Harmer) and friends
• Mr. Plod from the Noddy books (Martin Clunes)
• Aunt Sponge (Pam St Clement) and Aunt Spiker (June Brown) from James and the Giant Peach
• The Famous Five (Konnie Huq, Gethin Jones, Zöe Salmon, Matt Baker and Mabel, (i.e. the then current Blue Peter team))
• Horrid Henry (Sam Aston)
• William Brown from Just William (Luke Tittensor)
• The Keeper of Her Majesty's Owls (Harry Hill)
• Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe)
• Hermione Granger (Emma Watson)
• Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint)
• Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis)
• Mary Poppins (Scarlet Strallen)
• Bert, Michael, Jane and others from Mary Poppins
• Roxie Hart (Josefina Gabrielle)
• Velma Kelly (Amra Faye-Wright)
• The Cell Block Girls, Kitty, Harry, Aaron and others from Chicago
• Danny Zuko (Jarrod Carland)
• Sandy Dumbrowski (Hayley Evetts)
• The T-Birds-Kenickie, Roger, Sonny and Doody, the Pink Ladies-Rizzo, Jan, Frenchy and Marty and others from Grease.
• The cast from the musical Me and My Girl
• Various characters from Beatrix Potter's works
• Mr. Blobby
• Mr. Blobby's twin
• Burglar Bill – Bradley Walsh
• Captain Hook – Anthony Head
• The Childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – (Richard O'Brien)
• The Grand High Witch from The Witches – (Patsy Kensit)
• Cruella de Vil (Amanda Redman)
  • Cruella's chauffeur (Nicholas Lyndhurst)
• The Queen of the Pirates (Jerry Hall)
• Fiona Bruce (Herself, Crimewatch Presenter)
• Owl from Owl and the Pussy Cat (Simon Grant)-CBBC
• Jazz Singer in the London Underground (Matt Stevens)

Harry Potter inset

The Harry Potter sequence was a 2:55 long video clip filmed on the set of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The clip features actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Matthew Lewis reprising their roles as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, respectively, and their attempt to help find the Queen's lost handbag using their magical knowledge. A line of dialogue references a character named Peeves, who is a recurring character in the original Potter novels, but was omitted from the film adaptations.

Videoclip and stills

• The Queen's Handbag – 'Harry Potter' clip at Daniel Radcliffe's website
• The Queen's Handbag – 'Harry Potter' clip at Emma Watson's website
• 'Harry Potter' clip on YouTube

References

1. ^ "Kids win invite to palace party", Newsround report. (last updated 24 May 2006; accessed 13 July 2006)
2. ^ "Palace gets ready for kids' party", Newsround report. (last updated 23 June 2006; accessed 13 July 2006)
3. ^ ^{a b} "Queen puts on huge party for kids", Newsround report. (last updated 25 June 2006; accessed 13 July 2006)
4. ^ "Sophie Dahl Talks Potter and JKR" from Mugglenet.com (posted 24 June 2006; accessed 13 July 2006)
5. ^ Stars and children to gather at Buckingham Palace for the party of lifetime (published 11 June 2006; accessed 13 July 2006)
6. ^ "Potter stars cast in Queen's play", Newsround report. (last updated 13 June 2006; accessed 13 July 2006)
7. ^ BBC NEWS | The Editors