Singapore dancer to play young Queen as Platinum Jubilee pageant opts for ‘Bridgerton casting’

The Platinum Jubilee pageant has used “Bridgerton casting” to find the star dancer who will portray the young Princess Elizabeth for a predicted audience of one billion people around the Commonwealth.

Ludicrous as Bridgerton is, at least it is fiction, and there is a precedent of historical fiction being set in a fantasy parallel universe. This is history, and about our living breathing Queen. No wonder her appearance on the balcony at the end is in doubt. 

Organisers said they were particularly hoping to cast a woman of colour in the role, as a representation of modern Britain and the Queen’s position as a global role model.

Janice Ho, who is 22 and originally from Singapore, will open the “Let’s Celebrate” section of the pageant, dancing down the Mall as Princess Elizabeth on the cusp of becoming the Queen.

Interacting with a dragon puppet the size of a double-decker bus, she will depict the Princess coming to terms with her power and responsibility, before a grand finale in front of Buckingham Palace.

The section of the pageant will include numerous other “carnival queens”, from dancing pineapples to the royal wedding reimagined through a Bollywood lens, as well as a drag queen named Cheddar Gorgeous.

Just shoot me now please. The only thing giving me hope are the comments. 100% critical. 

The full effect is intended to be “relevant to our times” and representative of the “diverse voices of our country”, organisers said. They shared hopes that it would unite a multi-cultural Britain in the same way as the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. Generally remembered as woke crap, the James Bond sequence with Her Majesty excepted.  Maybe James Bond can parachute into the Mall and machine gun the organisers down as the traitors they are. 

Angie Bual, the artistic director of Trigger, said Miss Ho was chosen for her “dynamic” performance in auditions, adding: “She is a woman of colour and that is something we really strongly stand by.

After my disastrous attempt to watch the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012 I had no intention of attending anyway. Giving the Commonwealth an appropriate role is only right; but this is a travesty.