King Charles and Queen Camilla beamed as they got to meet TV star Rylan Clark and were presented with Blue Peter badges after unveiling the staging for Eurovision.
The royal couple have been in Liverpool to unveil the stage and the lighting for the Eurovision Song Contest next month.
They were shown around the M&S Bank Arena and also met Mae Muller, the UK’s contestant ahead of the competition next month. The grand final of the competition is due to take place on May 13, a week after the Coronation ceremony.
Eurovision 2023 will take place in Liverpool after the UK was chosen to host the competition on behalf of war-torn Ukraine. It will be the first time the competition has been held in the UK for 25 years.
The King told Mae he would be be "egging her on" as the UK’s Eurovision contestant while the Queen Consort joked there would be - "no nul points!"
Chatting with Mae, who will be singing ‘I Wrote A Song’, Charles told her: "Good luck, we’ll be watching with great interest, egging you on."
"Thank you!" she giggled. "No pressure. No nul points this year." "No nul points," Camilla agreed.
The couple also enjoyed a brief behind-the-scenes tour, which couldn't be filmed to protect the secrecy of the show, but then went onto a small stage on the main arena to officially launch it.
The King, in a smart suit, and the Queen Consort, wearing a blue outfit by Fiona Clare, met staff and UK apprentices preparing the Arena before being invited to light and animate the Arena with the set, sound and lighting directors, revealing the Eurovision staging for the first time.
Eurovision director Martin Green started a countdown from ten before the couple pressed the button and the arena exploded in a cacophony of light, colour and sound. It ended with the official Coronation logo in tribute to Their Majesties.
The royal couple then moved onto the main stage to meet the hosts of Eurovision 2023, Ukrainian host, Julia Sanina, DJ Scott Mills, presenter Rylan Clark and Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham.
The King chatted to Ms Waddingham intently about Monty Python. He then turned to presenter Rylan who said: "Your Majesty, how nice to meet you. I hear your have just come from Scotland. Little bit of different weather down here."
Charles asked if he had presented the show and was told he had been doing it for "six, seven years now". "I have to be on my best behaviour because I’m on home turf now," the presenter joked.
Camilla told Mills and Ms Waddingham that it must be "very strange now to to be in the middle of the action."
"I feel very strange," Ms Waddingham said. "It's so huge, it feels very strange to be in the belly of it all.
"In terms of presenting, as I told His Majesty, don't be worried [but] I am a novice."
She added: "I can’t believe you are both here given what you have coming up next week, thank you so much.
"You'll have to put yourselves in a darkened room afterwards and try and switch off." Camilla nodded her head enthusiastically in agreement.
The group posed for a photograph and were urged to give a "big Eurovision smile". "I've got the teeth for that," joked Rylan, referring to his shiny white veneers.
And afterwards, they met several Blue Peter presenters, who awarded them with the children's show's highest honour, the gold Blue Peter badge.
Both Charles and Camilla looked delighted to be given the badges, which they immediately had pinned to their jackets.
Charles and Camilla's visit to the arena was one of several royal engagements in Liverpool, recognising the cultural partnership of the UK and Ukraine and celebrating Eurovision.
Afterwards they visited Liverpool Central Library to officially mark its twinning with Ukraine's first public library, the Regional Scientific Library in Odesa.
On arriving, they were met with some protestors wearing T-shirts and holding up signs saying "Not My King" - although many cheered and clapped the royal couple.
Once there, they met key partners involved in both a two-week cultural festival running alongside the contest and Eurolearn, a Eurovision-inspired education programme for primary and secondary pupils.
Chief executive of Liverpool City Council, Theresa Grant, and director of Culture Liverpool and Major Events, Claire McColgan guided the royal pair around the external exhibits.
A recital of Poem For Eurovision by poet Levi Tafari, written with the help of secondary pupils from several of Liverpool’s Schools of Sanctuary, took place in the library’s atrium.
Touring the library space, Charles met krainian refugees and their host families who have been supported by The Prince’s Trust while Camilla met young people as part of a storytelling session.
The pair then together met members of the Ukrainian Community in Liverpool and their host families.
Charles later revealed a plaque to mark the twinning of the libraries, during a live link with the site in Odesa, and the visit ended with a performance by English National Opera.
