King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive at the Commonwealth Games in a TARDIS – before watching touching opening ceremony from thrones next to new PM Andy Burnham

It’s apparently as Scottish as Tunnock’s Tea Cakes, Nessie and Edinburgh Castle.

And if there was a little puzzlement over the decision to have the King and Queen arrive to open tonight’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the TARDIS, everyone was just going along with the flow.

In fact, palace aides were keen to stress, there was very good reason to feature the travelling time machine made famous by the BBC‘s Doctor Who as an ‘icon of Scotland’: the long-running series has featured many Scottish ‘Doctors’ (namely Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and Ncuti Gatwa); it is based on a police box designed by Scottish architect Gilbert Mackenzie; moreover Glasgow boasts more surviving original UK police boxes than any other city.

Oh, and for the real ‘Whovian’ nerds, The Doctor holds a degree in medicine from the University of Glasgow (as well as another from the Prydonian Academy on his home plant of Gallifrey).

A three and a half minute film shown at the start of the opening ceremony at the Hydro Arena showed the TARDIS going on a journey around Scotland, operated by national treasure Sir Chris Hoy and Scottish actor Greg McHugh.

The pair were seen walking through Glasgow when the phone on one of the city’s landmark police boxes started ringing, prompting the men to answer.

A conversation with ‘the palace’ followed about ways in which to hurriedly get Their Majesties from Balmoral, the Royal Family’s private Aberdeenshire home, to Glasgow in time for the ceremony.

After arguing about which one of them was qualified to ‘drive’, they stepped into the contraption and took off – much to the confusion of the Seventh Doctor, McCoy, who had apparently parked it there.

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at the Commonwealth Games in a TARDIS

The King gazed out into the crowd after stepping out of the phone box from Doctor Who

Charles and Camilla were later greeted by Scottish cyclist Sir Chris Hoy

Charles shook hands with Dr Donald Rukare, the President of Commonwealth Sport, before taking his seat

The King and Queen were led to the Royal Box, where they were seated next to Andy Burnham

Camilla was introduced to the new Labour leader’s partner, Marie-France van Heel

The newly inducted PM even appeared to amuse Camilla with a joke

During a chaotic journey though time and space, the TARDIS materialised at a number of famous landmarks – including Loch Ness, Edinburgh Castle, The Kelpies in Falkirk, the University of Glasgow, the Victorian Glenfinnan Viaduct and a Jurassic period Highlands – before finally alighting at Balmoral Castle.

Thanks to the marvels of technological wizardry, two figures were then briefly glimpsed in the shadows boarding the Time Machine.

To the sounds of the legendary Doctor Who soundtrack, the TARDIS was then seen approaching the arena before the stage lit up and it landed, to reveal the King and Queen.

Charles, wearing a navy suit and a pink tie, appeared first before Camilla stepped out donning a vibrant blue Anna Valentina jumpsuit. 

Followed by kilt-clad Hoy and McHugh, the royal couple were led to their seats in the Royal Box to be greeted by Prime Minister Andy Burnham. 

The newly inducted PM introduced Camilla and Charles to his wife, Marie-France van Heel, before he and the Queen appeared in great spirits as they shared a laugh. 

The opening ceremony comes just five days after Burnham visited Buckingham Palace to complete his appointment as PM.  

Camilla and Charles arrived in Glasgow earlier today as the King prepared to formally announce the start of the Commonwealth Games.

The monarch hailed the ‘unique and extraordinary family’ of Commonwealth nations in what was a touching speech, before urging the world to protect our oceans.

‘We celebrate the dedication and talent of every athlete and team,’ he said. ‘Your perseverance inspires me and eagerly anticipation your achievements in the coming games. 

‘As we share our love of sport, and our planet, let us build a harmonious and durable future for our families and each other. It is now my great pleasure to declare the 2026 Commonwealth Games… open!’ 

The royal couple appeared in good spirits ahead of Charles’s duty to officially start the Commonwealth Games

A raft of political figures sat beside Charlies and Camilla in the Royal Box at the Glaswegian arena 

The King officially signalled the start of the Games with a touching speech

Charles appeared jubilant upon his arrival to the Hydro arena

South Africa’s flag bearer Bridget Calitz leads her country’s team out on to the stage 

Every nation competing in this summer’s Games presented a Baton representing their culture (The Nigerian team is pictured)

Team Cameroon are pictured carrying their Baton and flag across the stage 

Team England were greeted with a cheer as they strolled out donning white and red tracksuits

The English were led by Sian Honnor, who was ‘speechless’ to discover the news earlier this week

The biggest roar of the night was however reserved for Team Scotland

Actor Sam Heughan later took to the stage alongside a model of the Loch Ness monster

It came before an image of the Glasgow Central train station clock was shown on screen

Scottish singer Tom Walker was one of many who performed at the ceremony, singing his 2017 hit Leave a Light On

Before Charles took to the stage, each of the 74 teams competing in the Games completed a lap of it with their Batons and flags.

Team England were the second European nation, after Cyprus, on stage. Sporting white and red tracksuits, they were led out by bowler Sian Honnor, who gushed about being handed flag-bearing duties earlier this week. 

‘I was actually speechless when I learned the news,’ she said. ‘Which is very unusual for me.’

A touching opening ceremony followed as countless Scottish celebrities, singers and actors performed in front of the 13,000 fans packed into the Hydro arena. 

It began with Outlander actor Sam Heughan on stage with a huge model of the Loch Ness monster before a message reading ‘People make Glasgow’ was projected onto the screen. 

Rapper Eve and singers Callum Beattie, Nathan Evans and Tom Walker also took to the stage in what was a celebration of Scottish culture. A rendition of Flower of Scotland, the national anthem, incited a raucous response from the crowd. 

This summer marks the second time in 12 years that the Games have been held in Scotland after the nation stepped in to take over hosting duties from the Australian state of Victoria.

Organisers in the southern hemisphere pulled out in July 2023, citing spiralling costs, a little more than a year after agreeing to host. Victoria’s auditor general had dubbed the Games a ‘waste of taxpayer money with no discernible benefit’. 

The spectacle in Glasgow will, therefore, be scaled down due to the significant lack of preparation time.  

The number of events being held has plunged from 20 to just 10 (including cycling, swimming and basketball), and although 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and territories will take part, this is 2,000 fewer than normal.

No new stadiums have been built as running costs have been slashed from the close to £800million spent in Birmingham four years ago, to £160million now.

And, for the first time since 1954, the BBC will not be airing the games after TNT Sports splashed out £5million to secure the rights. Live coverage will be on HBO Max at a cost of £4.99, although daily highlights can be seen on Channel 5.

The athletics events will be held in the significantly smaller Scotstoun Stadium, which holds just over 10,000 people and tickets sales are said to have been generally sluggish.  

Organisers were said to have been hoping for a late surge in sales as recently as this morning, when seats worth between £45 and £95 for tonight’s opening ceremony were yet to have been snapped up. 

It was 12 years ago that Glasgow last hosted the Commonwealth Games. The opening ceremony that summer was held at the 60,000-capacity Celtic Park and featured Rod Stewart, Ewan McGregor and John Barrowman. 

This year’s venue for the opener, Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, is significantly smaller, holding a little more than 14,000 people. 

Only 500,000 tickets have been made available for the 11-day event, down from the 1.2million which went on sale in 2014.