Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch comfort ‘terrified’ Queen Camilla after stage appearance
Queen Camilla stunned a packed audience at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday evening when she made an unannounced appearance at Letters Live, the celebrated show where famous faces perform readings from real letters.
Gasps rippled through the crowd as the Queen walked on stage, followed by thunderous applause.
During the interval, Olivia Colman, who herself delivered three readings that night, praised the Queen in the artists’ bar.
“You did a great job,” Ms Colman told her. “I love that they keep it a secret who’s coming out. Did you hear the shock when they heard it was you?”
During the interval, Olivia Colman, who herself delivered three readings that night, praised the Queen in the artists’ bar
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Camilla confessed to Southbank Centre chief executive Elaine Bedell that she had been “terrified” ahead of her performance.
The Queen chose to read a letter penned by the late Queen Mother to the poet Edith Sitwell, dated September 15, 1952.
Written just months after King George VI’s death in February of that year, the correspondence saw Charles’s maternal grandmother express gratitude for an anthology of poems Ms Sitwell had sent her during her period of mourning.
Addressing a captivated audience of hundreds, Camilla read: “It was a day when one felt engulfed by great black clouds of unhappiness and misery. I found a sort of peace stealing round my heart as I read such lovely poems and heavenly words.”
The evening’s roster of performers also featured Benedict Cumberbatch
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The letter closed with characteristic warmth: “I am deeply touched by your thought of me, I love being given books, and I send you my warmest thanks. I am yours, very sincerely, Elizabeth R.”
The evening’s roster of performers also featured Benedict Cumberbatch, Oscar-winning actress Jessie Buckley, and Laurence Fishburne, alongside Daniel Kaluuya, Simon Callow, comedians Sara Pascoe and Sindhu Vee, and television barrister Rob Rinder. Musical interludes came from rock outfit Elbow and folk pair The Staves.
Dressed in a blue Fiona Clare gown with turquoise and diamond earrings, Camilla told Ms Colman, Mr Cumberbatch and his wife Sophie Hunter, who served as the show’s stage introducer: “All of you were so terrific.”
Mr Cumberbatch reassured the Queen: “It’s a long walk to that lectern, but once you’re there it’s a lovely audience.”
Camilla confessed that she had been ‘terrified’ ahead of her performance
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In a lighter moment, Camilla joked that she was “upset” at not being given a wireless headset microphone like the other readers. “They didn’t dare mic you up maybe,” Ms Pascoe quipped.
Letters Live, which was established in London in 2013, has grown into an international phenomenon, with editions staged in New York, Berlin, and even at Glastonbury Festival.
Clips of certain readings have attracted vast audiences after spreading online. Over the years, the show has brought correspondence from figures as diverse as David Bowie and Charlotte Brontë before live audiences.
Thursday’s event was staged in aid of the National Literacy Trust, a cause close to the Queen’s heart; she serves as the charity’s patron and has long used her public role to promote the importance of reading.
Camilla, a well-known bibliophile, has made championing literacy a central pillar of her charitable work throughout her time as Queen consort and now as Queen.
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