ACT TWO: THE TIME OF OUR LIVES

THE Time Of Our Lives will showcase a jubilant procession like no other, an evocation of the seven decades of the Queen’s extraordinary reign. A cast of 2,500 volunteers (the oldest of whom is 99) will celebrate how British and Commonwealth creativity and culture has evolved through the Queen’s reign.

They will showcase youth culture, popular music, dance styles, changing fashion and all the trends, fads and crazes that defined the times.

Each decade will be marked with an open-top double-decker bus, each covered in pictures showing the icons, trends, personalities and news of the times. On board will be celebrities associated with the era and the accompanying soundtracks to spark memories from each decade. Volunteers wearing the clothes and fashions of the time will walk and dance through the years. Organisers say it will take people on an ‘epic journey through time, iconic British moments and extraordinary change and progress’.

As well as the live cast, 500 vintage cars and motorbikes and bicycles will appear, including ‘special guest vehicles’ such as Daleks and Sinclair C5s and a fleet of iconic cars from James Bond films dating back to the 1960s.

The Time Of Our Lives section will also feature 150 ‘national treasures’ including TV personalities, musicians, chefs, sports stars, designers and artists who have helped shape British culture of the past 70 years. These include Sir Cliff Richard, Heston Blumenthal, Alan Titchmarsh, Jayne Torvill, Christopher Dean, Gary Lineker and childhood favourites such as Basil Brush.

They will be joined by young stars such as the 11-year-old drumming phenomenon and activist Nandi Bushell.