Tom Cruise said he considered King Charles his “wingman” at the monarch’s coronation concert.
The 60-year-old “Top Gun: Maverick” actor appeared at the two-hour show on the East Lawn of Windsor Castle on Sunday, in a pre-recorded tape of him piloting his P-51 Mustang.
He said about 74-year-old Charles – who trained as an RAF pilot before joining the Royal Navy to fly helicopters and ending his military career in 1976 – “Pilot to pilot. Your Majesty, you can be my wingman any time.”
The concert also featured the first multi-location drone show, with 1 000 of the machines taking to the nation’s skies.
A Welsh Dragon made up of drones, spanning 140m, lit up the skies over Cardiff.
In a nod to Charles’s passion for the environment, a watering can appeared to hover above the Eden Project’s famous domes in Cornwall.
Charles’s love of the arts was also reflected in the show’s huge range of acts and performances, from acts including Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Take That, while fashion designer Stella McCartney paid tribute to the royal for his decades of work highlighting environmental issues.
The show came after Charles said he was “deeply touched” by the celebration of his coronation.
The monarch, who was crowned alongside his wife Camilla, 75, at Westminster Abbey, London, on Saturday, said on Sunday hours ahead of his coronation concert via a Buckingham Palace spokesperson he and the new Queen had been “deeply touched by the events of yesterday”.
The statement said: “Their Majesties were deeply touched by the events of yesterday and profoundly grateful both to all those who helped to make it such a glorious occasion – and to the very many who turned out to show their support in such numbers in London and further afield.”