WELCOME to Windsorworld. A theme park is to be built in the gardens of Buckingham Palace as part of a £5m children’s party for the Queen’s 80th birthday.

A tree-lined area will be converted into Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood; Peter Pan will duel with Captain Hook aboard a pirate ship on a lake; and J K Rowling will read from her next Harry Potter book.

A stage will feature a Mary Poppins musical while the Royal Ballet performs in Beatrix Potter costumes.

Even palace staff are adopting Disneyspeak. “We are calling it a guest experience,” said a spokeswoman. However, there will be no rides because of safety regulations.

The fantasyland is being built for 2,000 guests aged four to 14, and 1,000 adult chaperones. The names are to be picked from 10.5m applications this week to join the Queen on Saturday, June 25. Entry lines closed last week after more than 100m hits to an internet site.

Handwritten invitations will be sent next month and there are plans to pre-record messages from England’s footballers. “We could have David Beckham reading Noddy,” said an insider. “We want it to be a magical time for the children.”

Most of the royal family, including Princes William and Harry, are expected to attend.

The BBC is to broadcast a 90-minute show costing £1.5m from the party immediately after a World Cup quarter-final that could pitch England against Germany. The corporation is hoping for a “captive” audience of 20m for the event.

The show is being written by David Wood, a children’s author who has directed a stage version of The Old Man of Lochnagar, written by Prince Charles.

It will start with an imagined scene from an updated version of Roald Dahl’s The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) in which Sophie Dahl, the author’s granddaughter, and the giant are having breakfast with the Queen. It then broadens into a celebration of British children’s literature.

Peter Orton, 62, founder of HIT Entertainment, which owns the rights to Thomas the Tank Engine, came up with the idea two years ago. He suggested staging scenes from A A Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book and J M Barrie’s Peter Pan to remind children that they were British literary creations.

According to sources close to the organisers, the Queen was thrilled with the idea.

The names of 1,000 children will be selected from a computerised draw. Each will be allowed to bring a friend.

Rowling, who will be joined by Daniel Radcliffe, her boy wizard on screen, said: “I can think of no better way to mark the Queen’s 80th birthday.”

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