Children's Party at the Palace

13 June, 2006 by The_Boss

The Children's Party at the Palace will be broadcast on BBC ONE and The CBBC Channel on Sunday 25 June from 6.15 to 7.30pm (until 7.00pm on CBBC).

Julie Walters, Jonathan Ross, Harry Hill, Martin Clunes, Ronnie Corbett, Bradley Walsh and Patsy Kensit head a stellar cast for the Children's Party at the Palace, an extraordinary celebration of British children's literature in honour of Her Majesty the Queen's 80th Birthday.

Julie Walters plays a palace Maid, Jonathan Ross plays Sir Topham Hat, Harry Hill plays Hogwarts Owl Keeper, Martin Clunes plays PC Plod, Ronnie Corbett plays Mr Tibbs, Bradley Walsh plays Burglar Bill, Patsy Kensit plays The Grand High Witch, and Kelly Osbourne plays Wendy.

Over 30 stars of stage and screen will join some of Britain's best-loved literary characters including Mary Poppins, Rupert the Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, The BFG, Postman Pat, Mrs Tiggywinkle, Noddy and the Gruffalo for this unique extravaganza.

An exclusive scene starring four of the leading characters from Harry Potter has also been written especially for the drama and will include Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe, Hermione (Emma Watson), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Neville (Matthew Lewis).

The live show entitled The Queen's Handbag will be played in the gardens of Buckingham Palace on a huge stage in front of the Queen's 3,000 guests on BBC ONE and The CBBC Channel on 25 June.

More than eighty characters from the world of literature will be gathering together for the dramatisation written by children's author and playwright David Wood OBE with Julian Fellowes as Executive Script Editor and Sir Trevor Nunn as stage director.

The inspirational play brings together everyone's favourite characters from the world of literature for the first and probably only time ever.
The exact storyline remains a closely guarded secret, but revolves around a timeless baddies verses goodies plot...

The Queen has invited characters from the world of literature to the palace to help celebrate her birthday.
But, just as everyone starts to arrive Mary, the Queen's maid, her butler Mr Tibbs and Sophie from The BFG realise the Queen's handbag which contains her speech has gone.

Sophie (played by herself Sophie Dahl) had The BFG written for her by her grandfather. In the book Sophie went to live with the Queen and the story joins her as an adult still living with the Queen helping to send out invites to the party.

They desperately try and find the handbag with the help of some other characters including PC Plod, Robin Hood and Peter Pan but some of the characters are out to cause mischief.

The baddies - including Burglar Bill, the Grand High Witch, and Captain Hook - try and sabotage the party by stopping guests from arriving.
Will the Queen find her speech in time for the party or will the baddies ruin it for everyone?

Also confirmed to star in the play are Kasey Ainsworth (Little Mo from Eastenders), Sam Aston (Chesney Battersby-Brown from Coronation Street), Sanjeev Bhaskar, June Brown and Pam St Clement (Dot Cotton and Pat Evans from Eastenders), Dani Harmer (Tracy Beaker), Anthony Head, Richard O'Brian, Joe Pasquale, Alan Titchmarsh, and the Blue Peter presenters Matt Baker, Konnie Huq, Zoe Salmon, Gethin Jones and Meg the dog.

BBC executive producer of the Children's Party at the Palace, Lorna Dickinson, said: "I am delighted that so many stars of stage, screen and literature are coming together for this once in a lifetime event.

"We're also privileged to have such a fantastic production team working on making this show something special for everyone to remember.

"I'm sure the Children's Party at the Palace will go down in history as a fantastic celebration of children's literature and of the Queen's 80th birthday."

Two thousand children and 1,000 adults from all across the UK will be joining the celebrations at Buckingham Palace for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

They were selected as part of a ballot process on bbc.co.uk/cbbc which saw the greatest response to a CBBC online competition ever.

The Children's Party at the Palace will be broadcast on BBC ONE and The CBBC Channel on Sunday 25 June from 6.15 to 7.30pm (until 7.00pm on CBBC).