Showbiz legend Christopher Biggins has opened up about his memorable “date” with Princess Diana – and the emotional moment she shared with him. The 76-year-old, whose lengthy career takes in everything from a big screen appearance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to TV triumph in I’m A Celebrity, told his story on the Suddenly Single podcast.

Biggins explains that he had been asked to escort a female celebrity by his pal Liza Minnelli, but at first he wasn’t sure who it would be.

He recalled: “Liza rang me and she was doing a wonderful show at the Albert Hall. It was a one-woman show but she used women who were planted in the audience.”

It was only when Biggins got to the theatre that he realised who his royal “date” would be. He continued: “We had to wait at the side of the stage before we went to our front-row seats because they said people would just go mad if they see her.”

As he and the Princess waited for the lights to go down, Biggins tried to make some small talk and brought up an iconic image of Diana with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry: “I said ‘I’ve just seen that wonderful picture of you on Britannia where you’re kneeling down with your arms wide open and your boys running towards you.’

“She said: ‘You’ve got to remember they’re the most important things in my life’ and that remained with me as the most amazing statement.”

Biggins added that he met Diana on a number of occasions, and said that he thought she had made a number of “mistakes” in her life: “She made lots of mistakes but her biggest mistake was falling in love with her husband.”

By contrast, Biggins says, there was no truth in the rumours that Diana had been planning to marry Dodi Fayed: “I’m sure she was just having a fun summer and letting her hair down she wasn’t going to stay with him.”

“It was a fling, she wouldn’t do that to the royal family.” Prince Philip “hated” Mohammed Al-Fayed, he pointed out, and so Diana would never embarrass the royals by marrying his son.

“[Princess Diana] was just having fun,” Biggins added, explaining that Dodi was “a fun person to be with.”

Despite his royal connections, the 76-year-old actor points out that he has never been honoured: “I’ve got nothing,” he said. “It’s disgusting. I suppose I must have raised something like £50million for charity over the years…but it’s who you know I think.”

With a list of contacts including Frank Sinatra, Dame Joan Collins and Liza Minnelli as well as the late Princess Diana, it’s hard to imagine who else Christopher Biggins might need to know.