There was definitely an intake of breath, though, and we did have eight curtain calls.”ĭiana sent the dancer a letter a few days after the performance, which said: “Now I understand the buzz you get from performing.”

He told The Telegraph: “They wouldn’t have cheered because it wasn’t protocol. He said unlike the crowd reaction in The Crown, there was no wild cheering. Sleep said one of his main thoughts throughout the dance was “don’t drop the future Queen of England”. But I soon realised she had a good sense of humour, and that we could have some fun with our height difference.” He said: “My first thought was, she’s too tall to dance with me, I’ll be a laughing stock: I’m 5ft 2in and she’s 5ft 11in. I waited two months for tap shoes from London and when they did arrive they were girl’s!” Speaking about his early dance life in 2014, Sleep said: “I didn’t want to be a ballet dancer: a boy, being a dancer, in 1952? I don’t think so! But the only thing you could go to in those days was dance. His mother was musical, and Sleep says her own talent went “by the wayside” because she raised him alone, after learning Sleep’s father was married to someone else.

Sleep was born in 1948 in Devon, and studied tap and jazz as a child. The exact nature of Charles’ reaction isn’t completely clear. While it’s not something we can imagine Kate or Meghan doing now, the performance really did happen, but it wasn’t a birthday present for Charles – it was a surprise at Christmas.

In the penultimate episode of the season, Diana will surprise her husband Prince Charles on his birthday by dancing to Uptown Girl with Wayne Sleep, at the time one of Britain’s most famous dancers. Season four of The Crown will bring a story too good to be true to the small screen.

Wayne Sleep during the 2018 Celebrity Big Brother Final.

Princess diana royal opera house