The day I performed a tap routine for Prince Charles

I was asked to do a television show for Prince Charles’s charity, the Prince’s Trust. It was like a variety show, a royal gala. It was in the 1980s – I’m trying to remember if I had one kid or two – but it must have been ’85 or ’86. When they approached me, they asked me if I could dance. Of course, I said. I didn’t realise that it was going to be a choreographed tap routine.

I’d never tapped in my life before so I had to brazen it out. I went home and did a crash-course rehearsal. It came to the day and I am in the show doing a song – You Made Me Love You – and I was singing it to a parrot while dressed in a little basque thing with fishnet tights – it was not very Suzi, I can tell you. It was one of those things you agree to do and, while it wasn’t my sort of thing, it was great fun.

After I finished singing to the parrot, I did my tap routine with the performers Kenny Lynch and Gary Wilmot. A whole tap routine. And I did it wonderfully! I was a big hit.

At the end of the show, with the camera beside him, Prince Charles came down the line of the artists, meeting each in turn. So there he is, on his way, and I’m wondering what do I do. What do I say? I am not going to curtsy, I’m not English and he’s not my royalty. I’m still thinking when he shakes my hand and asks if it was a difficult show to do. I say: “You have no idea.” And he smiles and moves on. One, two, three more people down. And then he turns and says in a loud stage whisper, so loud the entire cast and camera crew can hear: “And you have the best legs since Tina Turner.”

That was the last thing I expected to hear from Prince Charles. He took me completely by surprise – and I’m never taken by surprise. I turned into a giggling idiot. “He-he-he-he-he,” I simpered. He got one over on me. I’ve met Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Princess Anne. But Prince Charles… he was the one who caught me off-guard.

Legends Live Tour 2017 featuring Suzi Quatro, David Essex, the Osmonds and Hot Chocolate starts in October (legendslive.org)