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"Ladies and gentlemen, and children everywhere. As has been so evident this afternoon British children's literature has been for many years an extraordinary success story and I am glad that we have been able to celebrate this great achievement here at Buckingham Palace."

—Queen Elizabeth II, 2006.^[1]

The Children's Party at the Palace was an event organised by Peter Orton of Hit Entertainment and David Johnstone of DJI consult, held in the Garden at Buckingham Palace on 25 June 2006 in honour of the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The event, which had the theme of British children's literature, was attended by 2,000 children and 1,000 adults^[2] who were chosen through a national ballot.^[3] On arrival, all guests received a purple hamper with snacks put together by Jamie Oliver.^[4]

For the occasion, the palace grounds were transformed into scenes from children's books, including places like the Hundred Acre Wood, with 80 costumed characters and a model of the BFG sitting at a huge piano.^[4] The grounds also had an authors' corner, where authors like J. K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Eric Hill and Raymond Briggs read from their books and signed autographs.^[5]

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 and directed by Trevor Nunn,^[6] which was performed on a stage resembling Buckingham Palace and broadcast live on both BBC One and the CBBC Channel.

In the play, the villains of children's literature are angry to find out none of them have been invited to the party, so they decide 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 at Hogwarts that was filmed during production of the Order of the Phoenix film, were pre-recorded and played on large video screens.^[7]

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.^[8]

Cast

Queen Elizabeth II as herself
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as himself
Pam St Clement as Aunt Sponge
June Brown as Aunt Spiker
The Big Friendly Giant
Sophie Dahl as Sophie
Ronnie Corbett as Mr. Tibbs
Meera Syal as Mary
Patsy Kensit as The Grand High Witch
Thomas the Tank Engine
Jonathan Ross as The Fat Controller
Postman Pat
Kacey Ainsworth as Peter Pan
Kelly Osbourne as Wendy
Anthony Head as Captain Hook
Noddy
Martin Clunes as Mr. Plod
Sly and Gobbo
Janine Duvitski as Maid at Buckingham Palace
Angelina Ballerina
Alexander Loxton as Peter Rabbit
Konnie Huq, Gethin Jones, Zöe Salmon, Matt Baker and Mabel as The Famous Five
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom
Harry Hill as The Prime Minister's Owl Keeper
Bernard Cribbins as Station Guard
Alan Titchmarsh as Percy the Park Keeper
Winnie-the-Pooh
Rupert Bear
Paddington Bear
Kipper
Spot
Scarlett Strallen as Mary Poppins
Gavin Lee as Bert
Joe Pasquale as The White Rabbit
Sanjeev Bhaskar as Robin Hood
Dani Harmer as Tracy Beaker
Sam Aston as Horrid Henry
Luke Tittensor as William Brown
Bradley Walsh as Burglar Bill
Richard O'Brien as The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Amanda Redman as Cruella de Vil
Nicholas Lyndhurst as Cruella's chauffeur
Jerry Hall as The Queen of the Pirates
Nick Ross as himself
Fiona Bruce as herself
Huw Edwards as himself
Sophie Raworth as herself
Simon Grant as Owl
Matthew Stevens as Jazz Singer in the London Underground

References

^ "A speech by The Queen at the Children's Literature Garden Party". Royal.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
^ "Kids win invite to palace party", Newsround report. (last updated 24 May 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
^ "Palace gets ready for kids' party", Newsround report. (last updated 23 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
^ ^a ^b "Queen puts on huge party for kids", Newsround report. (last updated 25 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
^ "Sophie Dahl Talks Potter and JKR" from Mugglenet.com (posted 24 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
^ Stars and children to gather at Buckingham Palace for the party of lifetime (published 11 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
^ "Potter stars cast in Queen's play", Newsround report. (last updated 13 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
^ Horrocks, Peter (26 June 2006). "Spoof newsflash". BBC News. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2021.