The glittering white-tie State Banquet has taken place this evening in Windsor, but Prince William will no doubt be disappointed that the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, sat next to Claudia Schiffer, not him.

Speaking in a 2017 documentary ‘Diana, Our Mother’, the future king said he came home from school one day to find three supermodels waiting to meet him: Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington.

Prince William spoke about the encounter: “I was probably a 12 or 13-year-old boy who had posters of them on his wall and I went bright red and didn’t quite know what to say and sort of fumbled and pretty much fell down the stairs on the way out.”

Tonight, members of the Royal Family were joined by a host of famous faces, including German model Claudia Schiffer, Strictly judge Motsi Mabuse, film composer Hans Zimmer and Axel Scheffler, who illustrated the Gruffalo.

German footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger, who spent the early part of his career playing for Prince William’s team Aston Villa, is also invited.

Guests dined on an exquisite menu, written in French, prepared by royal chefs and served on historic, priceless dinner sets.

Tonight’s meal started with an open tartlet of hot smoked trout with langoustines, quail eggs and shellfish sauce, followed by Windsor partridge supreme wrapped in puff pastry with confit cabbage and port sauce. The main was served with crushed carrots and swede and an assortment of winter vegetables.

To finish, guests enjoyed a baked alaska with blackberry, vanilla and raspberry ice creams with coffee and petit fours to follow.

Food was washed down with four specially selected wines, and after dinner, guests were served a black forest gateau-themed cocktail.

The Duchess of Edinburgh’s String Orchestra played an assortment of music with a nod to the German guests, including the music from one of the guests, Mr Zimmer, including Gladiator and Pirates of the Caribbean. Music by J. Strausse, W.A Mozart and G.F Handel.

The evening marks the first state banquet in modern history that a Christmas tree features at the foot of the table too – in acknowledgement of the German tradition.

Because of this, the mahogany table had to be shortened by two metres to accommodate the six-metre (19.6ft) Nordmann fir, with 152 guests seated instead of the usual 160.