One IS amused! From jewellery-rattling toffs (at the request of John Lennon) to Dame Edna crashing the royal box, the Royal Variety show has been packed with hilarious moments. But the REAL stars are the regal ones, as these pictures show…

It’s a unique event in which the finest performers of the day come together for one night of family-friendly entertainment with top-tier royals as guests of honour. 

The Royal Variety Performance is back – and this year will see William, Kate in the royal box, along with Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and her husband, Prince Daniel.

King Charles will be at the COP28 climate summit held this year in the United Arab Emirates. If, as many suspect, he’d rather be in Dubai than listening to compere Bradley Walsh and the gang, he’s been too polite to say so.

The King will know that the Palladium jamboree has been very much associated with the modern Royal family, ever since it was first staged for his great grandfather King George V, and has provided a number of memorable encounters – not least the moment when Dame Edna Everage paid an unexpected visit to Charles and Camilla in the royal box.

Some 152 million viewers worldwide are expected to tune in to watch the star-studded display on TV and online when it airs on ITV in December.

Headliner Cher will be singing tunes from her forthcoming Christmas album. She will be joined by pop luminaries McFly,  Paloma Faith and Rick Astley.

 His old Spice Girls chum Melanie C, will also be on stage, 26 years after her girl group told Prince Charles he was ‘very sexy’, kissed his cheek and pinched his bottom. 

After all, what is the great annual institution of the Royal Variety Performance without a few surprises?

 Even the first show in 1912 in which the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova danced for King George V and Queen Mary at the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue (which had been bedecked in three million rose petals for the occasion) had its moment of drama when Pavlova slapped her dance partner backstage, furious because she thought he’d received more applause than her.

 Since then many more moments have entered their place in theatrical history including the 1960 show – the first to be televised – when Sammy Davis Jr performed an electrifying eight-minute set. 

The Beatles made their irreverent debut on the show in 1963 when John Lennon asked: “Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewellery.’

History doesn’t record whether Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother, who were in attendance, did, indeed, shake their priceless baubles, but the Queen Mother is reported to have declared it, ‘one of the best shows I’ve seen’

 In 2013 Dame Edna Everage – aka comedian Barry Humphries playing his alter ego, the egomaniacal Aussie housewife – crashed the royal box and sat next to a terrified-looking Camilla.

 He only left when an assistant whispered in Dame Edna’s ear and the comedian deadpanned, ‘I’m so sorry, they’ve found me a better seat’. 

David Williams followed suit in 2016 with a rather more dismissive skit in which he dressed as an usher and berated the then Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall for taking the wrong seats and called them ‘riff raff’. 

But comedian Catherine Tate took it even further in 2005 when, performing as her rude schoolgirl character Lauren, she asked the Queen: ‘Are you disrespecting me?’ and later added: ‘Is one bovvered? Is one’s face bovvered?’. To which, the late monarch smiled politely. 

. In 2014, Prince Harry’s pal Ellie Goulding also entered the RVP annals when she performed in a record-breaking 600 sq ft dress that took a team five days to construct, and needed five puppeteers hidden underneath it making it move during the show. And who can forget Kate Middleton larking around with comedian Michael Macintyre, to the surreal sight of the late Queen meeting the azure-faced Blue Man Group, and a scantily-clad Kylie Minogue? 

Here, MailOnline looks back at the Royal Variety Show through the years…