A Right Royal Panto!
The Olympic opening ceremony was memorable for many
reasons, but none more so than the screen acting debut of Her Majesty, The
Queen.
What the viewers may not have known is that Her Majesty, or Princess Elizabeth as she was then, is the veteran of three pantomimes- “Aladdin”, in which she played the title role, 'Cinderella', in which she played Prince Charming and “Old Mother Red Riding Boots” in which she played Lady Christina Sherwood.
Productions took place during the second world
war in
The Princesses also devised the pantomimes, aided by Hubert Tannar, the Headmaster of Windsor Royal School. The first productions 'Cinderella' was in December 1941, with Princess Elizabeth as Prince Charming, and Princess Margaret as Cinderella.
The second production “Aladdin” was in December
1943, with Princess Elizabeth as Principal Boy, and Princess Margaret as
Princess of China!
I was delighted to
acquire a rare copy of the programme recently. You don’t see them very often
as they were sold for a shilling (5p) to the limited audience of pupils,
friends and family who attended. My copy came by way of the family of a
Royal Dentist invited to the performance,
and it is now carefully stored in the Ellacott archive!
“Old
Mother Red Riding Boots” featured the
Princesses, the Welsh Headmaster Hubert Tannar and pupils from the
The venue was the
Waterloo Chamber inside
These pantos were not shoddy affairs as you can
imagine. The principals and the pupils who comprised the chorus rehearsed
for several weeks, with time off from lessons to attend run-throughs, and
scenery was created by the Academy Award winning artiste, Vincent Korda.
Experts from the
In “Old Mother Red Riding Boots” Princess Elizabeth
sang a hit number from the 1944 film “Going My Way” called “Swinging on a
Star”. The pantomime had a Dame- played by Cyril Woods, with the comic
“Sammy Suction” played by the headmaster himself, and even a panto horse
called “Fairflint”!
Princess Margaret, Princess Elizabeth and Hubert Tannar - Red Riding Hood 1944
So, if you thought Her Majesty gave Daniel Craig a
run for his money in the performance stakes, you can see that her Royal
pedigree contains our glorious, eccentric and wonderful Pantomime. Does one
agree? Oh yes, one does!
This page was last updated 26th August 2012