The BBC and ITV channels used to alternate The Royal Command Performance, implying the the royals demanded certain acts to perform, but now just The Royal Variety Show.
Gone are the big stars who would headline and the likes of The Beatles, Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Tommy Steele and Rolf Harris, or their modern equivalents, are no more.
Instead we get lightweight ‘comedians’ like Alan Carr, tv presenter Stephen Mulhern, anyone with a record to sell and a few stage musicals that need the ticket sales.
One person we know described this year’s as being ‘dismal beyond belief’.