The Queen's Handbag

The Queen's Handbag is the title given to a Harry Potter sketch produced for the Children's Party at the Palace, a production mounted to celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The pre-recorded video clip, filmed during production of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was part of a play performed at Buckingham Palace.

Broadcasted live on 25th June 2006 on BBC One. Ofcourse Daniel starred as Harry Potter. Emma and Rupert were present at the party, but Daniel couldn't be there.


Story:
The Harry Potter segment begins with an owl delivering a letter to the Gryffindor Common Room at Hogwarts. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley enter in the midst of Hermione complaining about an (unheard) joke not making sense. Spying the owl and its letter, they open the correspondence.

Although Ron thinks the letter comes from the Minister for Magic, Hermione realizes it actually comes from the Muggle Prime Minister. Addressed to "whomever it may concern - as long as they can use magic", the letter reports on the Queen's handbag being stolen. Ron jokes that "Voldemort's getting really inventive." The letter stresses the urgency of retrieving the handbag as it contains Her Majesty's reading glasses, which she needs in order to read her speech at her 80th birthday celebration.

Harry remarks that Peeves was using the birthday as an excuse to drop coloured eggs on people at breakfast. Harry suggests veritaserum could be used to make the thieves confess, but Hermione points out they do not know who the thief is yet. Harry unsuccessfully tries the Summoning Charm to conjure up the lost handbag. Unable to do it himself, Ron joins him and together they do the charm again -- only to have a pile of different lost handbags appear on the table. Thinking one of them must be the Queen's the trio begins searching through the bags. Neville Longbottom arrives and spots his grandmother's handbag among the litter (Ron asks him if his gran happens to be the Queen). Hermione says none of the bags is the Queen's, because they're too far away from Buckingham Palace for the accio charm to work. Ron sticks his hand in Neville's Gran's bag and gets a mousetrap on his fingers as a result. Hermione gets an idea and grabs a quill and parchment. She writes a letter which provides the Palace with a temporary transference of magical power (presumably so they can use the Accio charm themselves). They send the owl back to Buckingham Palace with Hermione's letter. (The Queen subsequently receives her handbag back.)

Photo: YouTube