11th in the charts with 9.5 million viewers.
This birthday gala replaced the traditional winter Royal Variety Performance for that year. In The Stage (2nd August 1990) Sidney Vauncez wrote that he'd spoken to the BBC's head of light entertainment regarding the need to not put on the special at the end of the year, and for ITV to produce it the following year:
"Moir assured me that there was not the slightest intention of dropping the Royal Variety Programme from the BBC's biennial TV commitments. There wouldn't be a RVP in November 1990. This was because the Royal Birthday Gala had absorbed so much of their time, personnel and O.B. technical capacity. The November 1991 Royal date would be fulfilled by ITV and the BBC would be back with the Royal Variety Performance in November 1992 as usual. In the meantime, although Brinsworth House would not be the sole beneficiaries of the event (some 11 charities would share the "take") Moir was pretty certain their proportion of the million pounds or so raised by the Gala would be near enough as much as the annual RVP receipts."
"Moir assured me that there was not the slightest intention of dropping the Royal Variety Programme from the BBC's biennial TV commitments. There wouldn't be a RVP in November 1990. This was because the Royal Birthday Gala had absorbed so much of their time, personnel and O.B. technical capacity. The November 1991 Royal date would be fulfilled by ITV and the BBC would be back with the Royal Variety Performance in November 1992 as usual. In the meantime, although Brinsworth House would not be the sole beneficiaries of the event (some 11 charities would share the "take") Moir was pretty certain their proportion of the million pounds or so raised by the Gala would be near enough as much as the annual RVP receipts."
This special was recorded on 18th July 1990, and then screened on the 4th August to celebrate the Queen Mother's 90th birthday.