Meet the team behind a bash fit for a Queen
WITH over 8,500 performers, a host of celebrities and a TV audience of one billion people, tomorrow’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant is set to be Britain’s biggest-ever party.
The £15million event will tell the story of the Queen’s 70-year reign in four acts, and retrace the two-mile route taken for her 1953 Coronation. Here are some of the people involved.
The pageant master
Former circus producer Adrian Evans, 64, was asked to conceive a celebration fit for a Queen.
Adrian, behind the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Parade, wanted to “capture people of the UK in all their diversity”.
There will be a 20ft puppet of the Queen surrounded by naughty corgis.
Famous faces will include Dame Joan Collins, Sir Cliff Richard, Twiggy and Ed Sheeran, and Adrian said: “Everyone wants to be part of this.”
The paramedic
Stevie Smith, 32, is one of the 14 key workers who will be portrayed on giant scrolls during the procession.
Stevie worked tirelessly in the pandemic, and in her spare time converted an ambulance into a “welfare bus” which she drove to the local hospital in Basildon, Essex, to boost morale among staff – dishing out sweets, hot drinks and treats.
The pageant is about support and community, and Stevie said: “There’s been a lot of goodness in people.”
The famous face
Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas is “ecstatic” to be invited on a 1970s-themed open-top bus parading through London.
Shirley, 61, said: “I can’t believe I’ve been asked. The Queen is the biggest inspiration for women, ever. I’ll look like the cat that got the cream.”