Prince Charles pays touching tribute to Queen: ‘You pledged to serve’

Prince Charles paid an emotional personal tribute to his mother, Queen Elizabeth, on Saturday during celebrations to mark her Platinum Jubilee, praising the monarch for uniting the nation and continuing to make history during her 70-year reign.

Charles spoke at a pop concert that opened with a comic sketch of the 96-year-old monarch having tea with Paddington Bear and tapping out the tune to the Queen anthem "We Will Rock You" on her china teacup.

The heir-to-the-throne appeared towards the end of the concert at Buckingham Palace. As images of Elizabeth's reign were displayed on the walls, Charles, 73, said the Jubilee had given the country the chance to say thank you.

"You pledged to serve your whole life – you continue to deliver. That is why we are here," he said in a message to the queen, who was at her Windsor Castle residence outside London.

"You have met us and talked with us. You laugh and cry with us and, most importantly, you have been there for us, for these 70 years," he added, referring to the queen as "mummy".

The Saturday festivities were among a number of Jubilee events that Elizabeth has missed because of "episodic mobility problems" that have caused her to cancel engagements recently.

The opening video with the fictional character Paddington had echoes of 2012 when the queen appeared with Britain's most famous fictional spy, James Bond, in a video for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

Sunday will mark the final day of the celebrations, when singer Ed Sheeran will join some 10,000 performers and the armed forces for a parade which will trace a route similar to that taken by the queen on her coronation.