Later today, the Duchess of Cambridge will host her big Christmas Jazz Hands special. As in, they’re filming it today, and then it will air on Christmas Eve at 7:30 pm on ITV, not the BBC. All because Prince William is incandescent with rage at the BBC because they aired Amol Rajan’s The Princes and the Press. Now, the Keen Jazz Hands special will still be produced by BBC Studios, but it will only air on ITV. On Christmas Eve, which isn’t a night I associate with specialty, exclusive programming, but I do think it’s different in the UK. On Christmas Eve, if I’m watching anything, it’s probably It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle of 34th Street or the Peanuts Christmas special. Anyway, the Evening Standard had a breakdown of what the Christmas special will be, and apparently other royals are going to attend?
Members of the royal family are to join the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Kate’s Christmas carol concert with performances by singers Ellie Goulding and Leona Lewis.
Kate’s festive event is being broadcast on ITV on Christmas Eve at 7.30pm after a reported last-minute switch from the BBC following a row over the BBC Two documentary which examined William and the Duke of Sussex’s relationship with the media.
The Together at Christmas concert, which reflects on the challenges of the pandemic, will also include readings by William, British Paralympian and junior doctor Kim Daybell, and presenter Kate Garraway, whose husband Derek Draper spent a year in hospital after contracting coronavirus.
The duchess will feature in the introduction to the special Christmas Eve programme Royal Carols: Together At Christmas, as will a performance by singer Tom Walker of his Christmas single For Those Who Can’t Be Here.
As part of the concert, carols will be sung by the Abbey choir, alongside musical performances by Goulding and Lewis. There will also be a performance of To The Day, a composition created for the service by poet and writer Lemn Sissay.
Details of which members of the royal family are attending have not been released but Kensington Palace said “unsung heroes from across the length and breadth of the nation” would be recognised for “their tireless efforts and selfless acts of kindness despite incredibly difficult circumstances”. People who William and Kate met and spent time with during recent engagements have also been invited, as have armed forces personnel involved in Operation Pitting – the UK’s evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. Guests experiencing isolation, such as those with limited social connections, the recently bereaved or those without their own homes, will also be in the church.
So the audience will be made up of unsung heroes, military personnel, wig makers, people who have been largely in isolation for two years, people who have lost loved ones in the pandemic and unhoused people. The thing I’m catching on is how quickly this came together, considering the freakout two weeks ago about The Princes and the Press. It was then that we first heard about this Christmas special, which (at the time) still sounded very half-assed and like everything was still in its early planning stages. Two weeks ago, they hadn’t even gotten the deal with ITV. So who put this together in such a rush? We know it wasn’t Kate. She’s just going to waltz in at the very start of it (note: she will “feature in the introduction”) and then take credit for all of it. Shocked that her people didn’t find a way to link this to Early Years as well. Maybe they’ll hand out the five-question survey at the door? Or her intro will be about how children who don’t come from wealthy two-parent households won’t have a good Christmas.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Backgrid.
