Children's Party at the Palace

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The Children's Party at the Palace was an event held at Buckingham Palace Garden on June 25, 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]

[edit] 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 led by the London company of the musical Mary Poppins, in which the entire cast joined. 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 UK. The use of a fake newsflash caused complaints to be made to the BBC. [7]

[edit] Cast

[edit] 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 subsequent film adaptations (making this his first and only on-screen reference).

[edit] Videoclip and stills

[edit] References

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