Queen given standing ovation at star-studded Platinum Jubilee celebration

Television presenter Alan Titchmarsh said “our identity, heart and soul is embodied by Her Majesty the Queen”.

The gardening guru and writer told presenters Phillip Schofield and Julie Etchingham: “This is a remarkable year, 70 years for a remarkable woman whom I’ve met quite a lot and been bowled over by because she’s such ferociously good company.

“She has enormous quiet charisma like Nelson Mandela did, he had a kind of grace and the Queen’s the same.

“It’s important in our lives, particularly this past couple of years, that we have special. It’s often underrated and it’s poo-pooed by intellectuals, it matters. It is at the core of our very being.

“If we don’t know our own family history, we know hers and she in a way shares her lineage with us and her history is our history, and that matters to us. Whether we’re conscious of it or not.”

Titchmarsh added that there are some “very moving moments” at the end of the ITV celebrations when the Queen’s own ponies take to the stage.

Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise has said it is “a real honour and privilege” to be a part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Windsor.