Prince Charles and Camilla offer to host Strictly at Buckingham Palace
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The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have offered to host a BBC Strictly Come Dancing episode from Buckingham Palace, it is understood.
A live show will be streamed from the historic building’s ballroom in either the semi or quarter finals of the programme later this year.
Prince Charles, 73, and Camilla, 74, are said to have made the offer to the BBC, and the plan has reportedly been approved by the Queen.
The Royal couple are known to be firm fans of the show, and may even take to the floor for a dance themselves during the episode.
A source told The Sun: “Charles and Camilla are very much driving this and the BBC couldn’t quite believe what was being offered. Strictly at Buckingham Palace is just TV dreamland. It should be a wonderful spectacle.”
Earlier this year, Camilla met Rose Ayling-Ellis, the first deaf contestant to appear on the show who went on to be awarded the coveted Glitterball.
The meeting took place when the Royals visited the set of EastEnders to film a special episode to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Camilla told the actress that she had voted for her to win Strictly 2021, and when asked by Ayling-Ellis whether the Queen also watched the BBC One show, she replied: “I think she does. She probably watched you.”
After her moment with the Duchess, Miss Ayling-Ellis said: “It was really funny because she’s a huge fan of Strictly Come Dancing and she mentioned that she voted for me which is so lovely, and her grandchildren watch it.
“It is amazing, so lovely. I mean come on, it’s the Royal family voting for me, sometimes you forget how many people watch the show, I am mind-blown.”
The Prince and Duchess posed for a group photograph with the cast and crew to mark the occasion, with Charles winning a chorus of approval after giving Letitia Dean, who plays Sharon Watts in the soap, his coat because she was cold.
Buckingham Palace hosted the Christmas special of Strictly in 2017, in which Camilla danced with the judge Craig Revel Horwood and professional dancer, Brendan Cole.
She also made a surprise appearance on the 2020 final of the show, thanking the cast and crew for uplifting the nation’s spirits during the pandemic.
“I’m very excited, I don’t know who i’ll be voting for!” she said.
“I’d like, on behalf of everyone who watches Strictly to say an enormous thank you to everybody, everybody who’s been involved in this production in a particularly difficult year. You have given everybody so much pleasure and you’ve uplifted the nation.”
The ballroom at the Palace, where the Strictly episode would be filmed, is the largest of the State Rooms and was completed in 1855 during the reign of Queen Victoria.
It has a musicians’ gallery complete with an organ, and is used for official functions such as state banquets.
Strictly’s live tour was held between January and February this year. Seven couples, three judges and several lorries of sequins hit the road to perform 33 shows across the UK.
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