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Escorts of fighter jets, extravagant welcoming ceremonies, a thundering 21-gun salute, a fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks, royal camels, Arabian horses, and sword dancers were all part of the pageantry.

After the modern RAF paid its own tribute with a thundering flypast, the veterans were slowly wheeled across to Palace, in one last column.

This was given symbolic form by a joint flypast thundering over Rome from the UK's Red Arrows and the Italian pilots of the Frecce Tricolori.

"It was a thundering good job. A bit like the people working at Bletchley Park on Enigma. We were doing something important, something that mattered."

As the room erupted into thundering applause, award presenter Kerry Washington quipped, “Good luck to the next person” who had to follow Moore’s powerful speech.