Pink tipples, huge warmth and profound service - memories of the Queen's visit to Chichester Festival Theatre

In her first visit to the CFT in more than 50 years, The Queen visited the theatre during a trip to West Sussex on November 20 2017.

She watched a special performance including an entertainment by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre and songs from CFT’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, after which she had lunch in the theatre restaurant with guests including Dame Patricia Routledge.

Daniel recalls: “It was the coldest day of the year and we were all very worried that she was 91 and what were we going to do, that we should get her in from the car as soon as possible into the theatre but she was having none of it. She stayed outside talking to the public for a considerable amount of time and she was determined that she would go along the line. Then she came inside into the foyer and we unveiled a plaque to her.

“One of the strangest things was that I went up in a lift with her, with an equerry and one other person and obviously in the lift it was quite an intimate situation. I had a few questions ready just in case. I asked her if she remembered the performances of Sir Laurence Olivier in Uncle Vanya and Othello (in the theatre’s earliest years, in the early 1960s).

“And she did. She was crystal clear in her memories of them. She remembered coming down with the Duke of Edinburgh and she remembered going on stage with Sir Laurence.”

The Queen’s 2017 visit then took her into the main-house theatre for a special performance including an entertainment by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre and songs from CFT’s production of Fiddler on the Roof.

“She made a few comments – and then we had lunch together. One of the things that is so striking today is everyone talking about her duty and her service. And she was the absolute expert at putting people at their ease and making conversation. The conversation never stalled. It is such an odd thing to meet royalty. It is like the movie stars that you see in the newspapers and then suddenly you are with one, sitting next to them and it's actually quite surreal, but she was wonderful.

“And then Dame Patricia gave us a bit of Noël Coward. We had arranged with Patricia that she would give the speech that Noël Coward gave to the troops when he visited them abroad during World War Two. And then we had a photo display of the Queen's last visits to the theatre with Princess Margaret and the Duke of Edinburgh. You could see from her reaction that she was really moved by the photographs from 1962 and 1964. She had not been back to the theatre since then.

“But I think you should also pay tribute to The Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex, Susan Pyper and her team for the arrangements, the people that all organised it and that worked so hard.

“We had a call out of the blue saying that The Queen had not visited Chichester Festival Theatre for a number of years and she wanted to come back. And she was with us for three hours, I would say.

“I think the entire team were pretty tired at the end of the day. There had been a lot of work and because of the security we could not tell people until quite last minute, and the youth theatre choir was being organised not fully knowing what it was for.

“But I think now with the news of her death you have a sense of history and a sense of tradition. For me the overwhelming notion is this idea of a life which was lived as one of service and whether you are a royalist or not, I find that very moving, that level of service over so many years.

“But it is the little things that you remember I remember when we sat down in our seats in the Festival Theatre a bit of her coat, this gorgeous brocade that she was wearing, fell onto my seat and I had to slightly shift her coat back.

“And I also remember when Omid Djalili (from Fiddler on the Roof) sang If I Were A Rich Man, the queen said to me ‘He's very good, isn't he.’

“And I also remember we were having a glass of wine at lunch and The Queen’s equerry brought her this almost luminous pink glass. Her tipple was Dubonnet and gin.”