Lee, the star of Not Going Out, recalled the incident on an episode of The Graham Norton Show alongside Dawn French and Martin Freeman. He said he met the Queen when he hosted the Jubilee Concert and that Kylie had been tasked with showing Her Majesty around and introducing her to everyone there. Lee said he thinks Kylie did not know who he was, “panicked” and backed off, leaving the Queen to fend for herself.
He said: “She did this thing where Gary Barlow and Kylie ‒ it was her job to show her round everybody ‒ and I think Kylie didn’t know who I was and panicked and just backed off because she didn’t want to introduce me.
“So the Queen was left stranded on her own and we were making polite conversation and I saw the Queen looking around as if to go ‘usually I’m dragged away at this point but no one’s coming to get me.’”
Then he joked: “So I said [to the Queen]: ‘You staying at the Premier Inn with Lenny?’ and she said, ‘No, I’m not doing that.’”
Fellow comedian Lenny Henry, who famously features in the Premier Inn TV adverts, was also in the room after the Jubilee Concert in 2012.
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Queen Elizabeth II was abandoned by Kylie at the Jubilee Concert (Image: GETTY)
Kylie Minogue introducing the Queen to Cheryl (Image: GETTY)
Lee added that the Queen was “great” and explained how he had been wanting to meet her his whole life.
He recalled how, when he was young, he saw the Royal Variety Show and the comedian on it had met the Queen.
He said: “So I assumed that that meant he must be really funny ‒ to meet the Queen!
“Like, she says, ‘he’s funny enough to meet me’, I thought that’s how it worked’.
Comedian Lee Mack on The Graham Norton Show (Image: BBC)
“So I had it in the back of my head that I should meet the Queen one day and then I can say that I’ve finally made it as a comedian.”
Lee then explained that when he was writing his book ‘Mack The Life’ about his own life, he included this piece of information about wanting to meet the Queen.
Then, in a chance turn of events, as he was trying to work out how he should finish the book, he got a call asking him to host part of the Jubilee Concert.
He explained: “I was trying to think of a way to end the book and I’d mentioned wanting to meet the Queen in the book.
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Kylie introducing the Queen to will.i.am (Image: GETTY)
“And literally as I was trying to finish it, I got a phone call to ask if I could do the Jubilee Concert this year and host it and I thought ‘this will be great, I get to meet the Queen’.
“And there was so much pressure. I mean, we were all nervous about the gig but I was more nervous about ending my book, so I had to meet the Queen and I had to get the photo.”
Unfortunately, when it came to the part of the night when Lee would get to meet the Queen, it did not go exactly to plan.
The person he had intended to take the photo was thrown out of the room and so he asked someone nearby to take it, who happened to be the opera singer Alfie Boe.
Chat show host Graham Norton pulled up the picture that Alfie managed to take and everyone laughed because it was not a very well framed photo.
In the middle of the photo is Kylie Minogue, with Lee grinning on the right and Lenny Henry behind him, and only some of the Queen’s face can be seen on the left.
Lee said: “So [the Queen] came and they chucked everybody that wasn’t… it was such a small room, so the person who was going to take the photograph couldn’t take it, so she said, ‘I’m being thrown out, it’s just you lot who are in the show’.
“And so she hands me the camera and I see Alfie Boe, the opera singer, and I go ‘Alfie mate, don’t mess this up, there’s the camera, you’ve got to get this shot’.
Alfie Boe (right) (Image: GETTY)
“And I think if you have a look at the shot… it’s not exactly what you’d call…”
Graham laughed and said: “Everyone’s in it!”
Lee then quipped: “I tell you what, I was going to change the whole story, that I didn’t want to meet the Queen, I’d always wanted to meet Kylie Minogue and Lenny Henry. Then it might work.
“But bless him, I didn’t give him much warning, I said ‘press that button and just hope for best’ and he did.”
