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 Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

. The event, which had the theme of British children's literature, was attended by 2,000 children and 1,000 adults"Kids win invite to palace party"

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first televi ...

report. (last updated 24 May 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006) who were chosen through a national ballot."Palace gets ready for kids' party"
Newsround report. (last updated 23 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006) On arrival, all guests received a purple hamper with snacks put together by Jamie Oliver."Queen puts on huge party for kids"
Newsround report. (last updated 25 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006) 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 ''The BFG'' (short for ''The Big Friendly Giant'') is a 1982 children's book written by British novelist Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 book '' Danny, the Champion of the World ...

sitting at a huge piano. 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."Sophie Dahl Talks Potter and JKR"
from Mugglenet.com (posted 24 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)

''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,Stars and children to gather at Buckingham Palace for the party of lifetime
(published 11 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006) which was performed on a stage resembling Buckingham Palace and broadcast live on both BBC One and the

CBBC Channel CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

. 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 ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

and his friends, were pre-recorded and played on large video screens."Potter stars cast in Queen's play"
Newsround report. (last updated 13 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006) 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.

Cast

References

{{reflist British monarchy Parties 2006 in London Buckingham Palace