Major Windsor Castle event also includes Tom Cruise and Helen Mirren

Omid Djalili is to compere a major celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in the private grounds of Windsor Castle.

The comedian will be appearing at the televised event alongside a cast of 1,300 people – including Tom Cruise, Dame Helen Mirren, Ant & Dec and Damian Lewis – and 500 horses.

Senior royals will attend, but the Queen is not expected to confirm whether she will attend until just before the event as she will be limiting her engagements now she has turned 96.

The event  will be made up of four acts over four nights, May 12 to 15, each overseen by a different host –  Cruise, Lewis, Adjoa Andoh and Alan Titchmarsh. They will take viewers ‘on a gallop through history, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I through to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, culminating in a grand finale’.

Mirren will take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I, whilst a cast of ‘Queen’s Players’ will be introduced by a character called The Herald, played by Djalili. The Herald will whisk viewers through time linking the acts together, narrating the stories and making jokes.

Also appearing are  Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dame Joan Collins, Sir Mo Farah, Dame Maureen Lipman, Sir David Jason, Dame Kelly Holmes Moira Stuart, Sir Trevor McDonald, Keala Settle, Gregory Porter and Katherine Jenkins – as well as military and equestrian displays from around the world. Music will be provided by a 75-piece orchestra.

Phillip Schofield and Julie Etchingham will host the live ITV broadcast of the final night of the celebration.

Katie Rawcliffe, the broadcaster’s head of entertainment commissioning, said: ‘We’re thrilled to be broadcasting the first televised event for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee here on ITV.

‘To mark this momentous occasion, we’ll be bringing the nation a celebratory, star-studded show, complete with show-stopping performances and an epic journey through history, told by some of the most well-renowned and respected names in film and television.’

Djalili has appeared at the Royal Variety Performance three times - in 2002 and 2006 in front of Prince Charles and 2011 in front of Princess Anne.

He also performed at Charles’s private 60th birthday party and at numerous other Clarence House engagements – and has revealed that he also writes jokes for the Prince.

'I've a bit of history with [the Royals] because if they want a joke, he'll call me up,' Djalili told fellow comic Scott Capurro on his podcast in 2020.

He recalled how Michael Fawcett, Charles' former senior valet, would ring to say that they needed gags about architecture, for example: 'We need 10 jokes, emailed, tomorrow’.

Fawcett also wanted Djalili to coach Charles in delivering the lines, once offering a helicopter to get him to meet the Prince. But he the comedian said he was never paid for his work.

In 2010, Djalili suggested he should be known as Charles’s 'pocket MC [because] he always likes the way I introduce him’.

The jubilee events will take place in front of 4,000 people and tickets are available here.

Published: 22 Apr 2022