How Bradley Walsh was warned not to address the royals at the Royal Variety Show – but ignored the advice during ‘awkward’ hosting stint

Bradley Walsh revealed he was warned not to speak to or joke about the Royal Family while hosting the Royal Variety Performance.

The 63-year-old TV presenter has clearly ignored the advice this year as he made a number of ‘awkward’ jokes at the expense of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Bradley’s jokes did not land with many viewers, who complained on social media that the comedian was “painfully unfunny” and “embarrassing”

Just minutes into the show, fans complained about his “boring” opening when he gave a speech about the royal family in front of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The Wales’ attended the event at the Royal Albert Hall alongside Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and her husband Prince Daniel, who were in Britain on an official visit.

William and Kate entered the event with beaming smiles before settling into the balcony with the Swedish royals as the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

Bradley opened the event with a few jokes, including that he wasn’t on the King’s honor roll.

Addressing Prince William, he said: ‘I worked for your great-grandfather, your grandfather, your grandfather, your father, and now I work for your Mr. and Mrs.

‘And I have to say, ask me if I have an MBE. No, I don’t have one. Ask me if I have an OBE, no, I don’t. Ask me if I have a CBE – no!’

He went on to say that these awards are probably “running out” because “they’re all giving them to people who are rowboats” and “people on TV who bake cakes.”

Bradley said he ‘entertained troops in the Falklands’ and was ‘glad to get out alive’, while others were praised for their ‘Victoria sponge cakes’.

He also shared an anecdote about meeting his two-year-old grandson, who he “promised” he would ask Prince William for a knighthood so the little boy could use his grandfather’s title during show-and-tell in the nursery.

Earlier, Bradley had greeted the ‘royal highnesses’, with the camera switching to William and Kate as they smiled.

He pretended to stumble over the word “Your Highnesses” several times. “Doesn’t it sound good, Your Royal Highnesses? There are too many ‘reviews’, right? Your Royal Highness… your Royal Highnesses?” he said.

“It should be like cactus, cacti, cacti. Your Royal Highness, Highness and Highni. That is it. I’ve got it. Your royal highni.” Meanwhile, we saw Kate and William laughing at the awkward joke.

People on X, formerly known as Twitter, labeled his opening sketch “cringe” and “boring.”

One user said: ‘Bradley Walsh was completely embarrassing at first, not funny at all, begging for a cbe obe etc.’

Another said: ‘Bradley Walsh is just not funny! Cringe-worthy start to show. Think he just moved to last place on the list #RoyalVariety.”

This idea was echoed by another user who commented: ‘Agreed, normally I love Bradley Walsh, but begging for gong is embarrassing.’

“Bradley Walsh. Stand-up comedy is not for you,” a third pointed out.

One user also wrote: ‘What a boring Bradley Walsh is.’

Before hosting the evening, Bradley first appeared as one of the performers on the show in 1993 and revealed the words of wisdom he received from the late Des O’Connor.

Sharing Des’ advice on the royals during a 2016 interview with the Huffington Posthe said he [Des] said to me: ‘Imagine there are no TV cameras, just be yourself, don’t work on the cameras.’

“But don’t work for the Queen either, she’s not interested in comedy, she likes ballet.”

Bradley said at the time that he had taken the advice to heart and that the call “calmed his nerves,” but he has clearly changed tactics since then.

The former Corrie star also admitted he thinks his big break may ‘set him back’ in his career.

Bradley was inundated with offers after the performance, but he later admitted he thinks he accepted the wrong one.

Bradley was subsequently offered more work on a television show, but believes this particular job put him at a disadvantage.

He explained: ‘I should have stuck to my guns because it actually cost me three or four years of progress. So yes.’

On advice he received from Jimmy Tarbuck, he added: ‘He said to me after the Royal Variety Performance, ‘People will come up to you and offer you all kinds of things. Be careful what you take with you. It’s the things you refuse, not the things you take with you.

“And I took the job and I thought, ‘Oh, this would be great,’ but I was trapped in something that I couldn’t really get out of.”