This year’s Royal Variety show is on BBC1 tomorrow at 7:30pm ‘til 10pm and it’s a rather special one as this year marks the 80th anniversary of Royal Variety performances.

The first Royal Show took place on 1st July 1912 at The Palace Theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary. The King had told the show’s organisers that he would attend provided the profits went to the Variety Artiste’s Benevolent Fund and so the Royal Variety performance was born and the charity still continues to benefit from the performance.

The Royal Command Performance as it was then called became an annual event after 1921, with the exception of a few years; there was no show in 1929 because of the stock market crash, and again no performance in 1936 when King George V Died and the abdication scandal rocked the nation. The show was postponed from 1939-1944 because of World War II and again in 1956 due to the Suez conflict.

It’s a highlight of the TV year for many and I remember as a child we used to all watch it religiously. There’ve been some great moments over the years, so let’s take a look at a few of them…

In 1963, the controversial boy-band-blueprints The Beatles appeared on the show. Here’s a clip from it featuring an interview with the boys too…

And in 1978, the cast of The Good Life performed live sketches for the Variety Performance and here you can see the Queen meeting those involved…

A highlight of the show in 1993 was a performance by the cast of the stage-show production of Grease, the cats includes former Neighbours star Craig McLachlan and the lovely Debbie Gibson…

The Two Ronnies were for many years a favourite of the Royal Variety and here they are making their first appearance since they retired from performing together in 1997.

But the highlight for me of last year’s show was Paul Potts of Britain’s Got Talent fame performing live.

This year’s show is going to be just as star studded as it always is with celebrities and artists from the worlds of music, comedy and theatre come together for the performance in front of Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, seen here arriving for the performance.

Headlining this year are Take That and other music performers include Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna, Duffy, Josh Groban and Leona Lewis. There’ll also be special appearances from Sir Cliff Richard and The Shadows as well as Only Men Aloud from Last Choir Standing.

Following in Paul Potts’ footsteps will be George Sampson, the 15 year old dancer who won this year’s Britain’s Got Talent and from the world of theatre and dance, the Jersey Boys will be taking us through the rags-to-rock-to-riches tale of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

The cast of Zorro will be making an appearance as well as the cast of the live stage show of Disney’s The Lion King.

Also set for centre stage is La Cage Aux Folles as well as live performances from legendary Queen guitarist Brian May and Kerry Ellis from the multi-award-winning Wicked.

Comedian Peter Kay returns to the Royal Variety Performance after a decade away with his Irish talent show-winning alter ego Geraldine McQueen and other comedy performers include Jimmy Carr, banter merchant Michael McIntyre and funny man Rhod Gilbert.

Double act Armstrong and Miller will also be performing a one-off sketch featuring characters from their BAFTA-nominated comedy show.

Should be a good ‘un!