THE Queen has never forgotten her first Royal Command Performance. So much so that HMQ asked for a repeat show 50 years later, featuring Max Bygraves and The Beverley Sisters, as part of her Golden Jubilee Celebrations.

Max and the singing sisters so enjoyed themselves that they are to take to the road to mark Bygraves's 81st birthday and 60th anniversary in show business, opening the tour at the Grand Opera House in York next Friday.

Teddie Beverley revels in the memory of that command performance. "It was the beginning of our career and the beginning of The Queen's career!" she says. "We've sung at various palaces since 1953 and we always make The Queen laugh as we're pretty cheeky, always doing this very deep curtsy!

"On her Golden Jubilee tour, she said she would like to see us again, and so the Queen and Prince Philip came to see us at the Broadway Theatre in Catford. It was a lovely occasion."

For that performance at the South East London theatre, Bygraves and the Beverley Sisters replicated the show from 50 years earlier. "It went so well we said to Max, 'Why don't we do a tour?', and so we are.

"We'll do the first half, Max will do the second half, and we'll do some funny pieces together," says Teddie. "We've got a couple of naughty songs we sing...well, Fifties naughty."

Teddie, identical twin Babs and sister Joy first had a hit 50 years ago with that Christmas chestnut I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and Teddie believes their musical apprenticeship gave them the sea legs for a long career.

"There's still an enormous amount of talent among the young but they're not getting the chance to sing in theatres and pubs and clubs to really test themselves out in the way we could," she says. "The great thing with our live shows is that everything is live and spontaneous, which may not be the case with young acts.

"What you see is these young boys in dirty jeans looking bored, looking anywhere but the audience. They don't develop the necessary artistry, but theatre is an art form, and so is cabaret, which is harder still."

Teddie is not a fan of the Pop Idol or Fame Academy laboratory experiments. "I don't like those Pop Idol shows where the judges humiliate them," she says. "Cruel, I call it, and I don't like that."

She acknowledges that the old-fashioned training ground of clubs and theatres could be tough too, but she recalls The Beverley Sisters always receiving a warm welcome. "We had charm, we had this vulnerability; we were these evacuees who had nothing; all our clothes were on one peg, and then we found we could sing in harmony, and we knew we were original," she says.

"No-one ever taught us anything; we just had this ability to entertain and that's something you never lose.

"We amaze ourselves that we can still do it so well: Laurence Olivier once said to us 'Amaze yourself with your own daring' and that is so true. If you have talent it will always come out."

Max Bygraves Birthday Show with The Beverley Sisters, Grand Opera House, York, September 19, 7.30pm. Tickets: £15, £12.50, £10; ring 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 09:43 Friday, September 12, 2003