Jamie Whitehead
Live editor

And that brings our coverage of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe to a close.

Throughout the day we’ve been hearing from those who remember VE Day 80 years ago, as well as hearing about how schools and communities have been marking the occasion.

King Charles earlier laid a wreath in Westminster Abbey and this evening attended the spectacular concert in London which our royal correspondent Sean Coughlan has been reporting for us.

If you’d like to read about everything that’s been happening today, you can read our news story.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Perhaps inevitably the concert draws to a close with two Vera Lynn classics - The White Cliffs of Dover and We'll Meet Again.

It's a wartime message of resilience that has grown deep roots.

During the Covid epidemic, the late Queen Elizabeth gave a special broadcast that promised: "We will meet again."

It was a fitting way to end such a poignant week of commemorations for a passing generation.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Sir Willard White has sung You'll Never Walk Alone. It's a song probably most associated with Liverpool football club, but it began as a show tune, written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the musical Carousel.

It's also celebrating its 80th anniversary too, first appearing on Broadway in April 1945, a few weeks before VE Day.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

For any younger viewers, actors have been re-creating Dad’s Army, which was a massively popular BBC TV comedy in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing audiences of 18 million at its peak.

The original comedy was a masterclass of understated character acting. It was set in wartime, and followed the quiet heroism of volunteers in the Home Guard, puncturing pomposity and celebrating a sense of good-humoured community.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

After the glitz of the music show, there's a sobering film with a reminder of the day-to-day sacrifices of wartime.

It included people who were keeping the economy going on the home front. We heard from someone who as a teenager had been conscripted to working in a coal mine.

It was a vital service that's easily overlooked.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

The King's VE Day speech had a serious theme for a serious moment, emphasising that the legacy of war had to be a lasting peace built on foundations of fairness.

He quoted his grandfather King George VI: "We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in good will."

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

The King’s speech also had a strong message about what the wartime victory can teach us in the present - calling for togetherness between people of different backgrounds and cultures.

He said victory was a “result of unity between nations, races, religions and ideologies, fighting back against an existential threat to humanity.”

“Their collective endeavour remains a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when countries stand together in the face of tyranny,” said the King.

And was he thinking about the need for justice in modern conflicts such as Ukraine when he spoke of “renewing global commitments to restoring a just peace”?

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

Image source, Reuters

King Charles got a rousing reception when he took to the stage and, on a night of family memories, his speech began with a reference to his own family.

“It is now 80 years since my grandfather, King George VI, announced to the nation and the Commonwealth that ‘the dreadful shadow of war has passed from our hearths and our homes’. The liberation of Europe was secured,” the King told the audience at the VE Day concert.

And he picked up the family theme by remembering the experiences of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who, as a 19-year-old, had gone out into the crowds in London on the night of VE Day in 1945.

The King said her diary had recorded “how she mingled anonymously in the crowds across central London and ‘walked for miles’ among them.”

“The rejoicing continued into the next day, when she wrote: ‘Out in the crowd again. Embankment, Piccadilly. Rained, so fewer people. Conga-ed into House. Sang till 2 am. Bed at 3 am!’”

The King joked he might not have the energy to sing until 2am or conga back to Buckingham Palace.

Rorey Bosotti
Live page editor

Image source, PA Media

Commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe will be drawing to a close this evening.

After four days of events marking VE Day, the UK came together for two minutes of silence ahead of a special thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey.

King Charles led the tributes, laying a special wreath at the grave of the Unknown Warrior with a note vowing: "We will never forget." The Prince and Princess of Wales joined in, with Princess Catherine later laying a bouquet of flowers on the Innocent Victims' Memorial.

Our reporters have been bringing you updates from all over the country, including Hull, where primary school pupils took part in activities relating to World War Two, including the re-enactment of an air raid.

We've been hearing from the RAF's longest surviving pilot, Colin Bell, who still doesn't consider himself a hero despite his work as a bomber pilot. And we've heard from Sally Baggealey, who remembers celebrating VE Day with her friend Eunice in Trafalgar Square.

In Staffordshire, 46 veterans and their families were treated to a special anniversary tea party at the National Memorial Arboretum.

Events will continue into the evening, with churches and cathedrals across the UK set to ring their bells in a moment the Church of England says will echo the sounds that swept across the country in 1945.

The commemorations will culminate with a live concert - VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember - presented by Zoe Ball - at Horse Guards Parade. The concert will be broadcast on BBC One from 20:00.

We are now stopping posting regular updates, but you can watch the concert when it begins later on this page.

Image source, Annie Delaney/BBC

Gemma Dawson
BBC Look North,

Image source, Gemma Dawson/BBC

The party is getting underway in Brigg with swing dancers, music and a children’s parade.

Locals tell me there was a party here in the Market Place 80 years ago today.

Celebrations tonight are expected to continue for several hours before moving to Millennium Green for more music and the Beacon lighting at 21:30 BST.

Andy Giddings
BBC Shropshire

Sally Baggealey, from Ellesmere, Shropshire, had been doing her midwife training when the war ended and remembers the scenes when the news was announced.

She says: "The immediate reaction was stunned silence and then the eruption of sound. People didn't know what to do."

Now 103, she remembers everyone dancing in the street and says she made the decision to travel to London with her friend Eunice.

She says Trafalgar Square was "chockablock" and there was "just one large joyous sound" as people celebrated.

The following day there were street parties for the children, with fish paste. "When you went everywhere there were smiles on everybody's face," she adds.

Image source, Family handout

Becki Bowden
Reporting from Howden

Image source, Becki Bowden/BBC

“That’s the time I greeted the world as a baby. That’s why VE Day is a bit memorable, so to speak”

Barry Volans, sat alongside his wife Gillian, was born premature and came out of hospital on VE Day 80 years ago.

“VE Day was a significant time and double celebrations for my parents.”

“It’s a day to remember but we really should think about the significance in terms of the number of service people that did everything they could to save our country. We should never forget that.”

While most of the UK was celebrating VE Day, Pat Shepherd remained oblivious that the war in Europe had ended.

Stationed at RAF Drem, an airfield in Scotland, she was unaware of the seismic news.

But a few days later, several high-ranking Nazi officers flew into the airfield to surrender top secret military and naval plans - and Pat was asked to drive them across the base.

"I was just curious, [but] I wasn't scared," she says.

More than 80 years on, the UK's oldest surviving RAF veteran remains humble about his time as a pilot during World War Two.

"I wasn't particularly frightened, I don't frighten easy, and probably it's because I'm too thick, and I certainly don't consider myself a hero," Colin Bell tells BBC Newshour's James Menendez.

Aged 104 today, he was only 19 when he joined the RAF and piloted a Mosquito bomber.

Bell says he decided to enlist after narrowly escaping alive from an airstrike while on a night out in London.

"I was heading out for a steamy evening with my girlfriend and a Heinkel bomber came over and he slung a bomb at Hampton Court Bridge and it missed.

"There was a violet flash and I got covered in dirt and dust and everything else and I thought 'Well, if I become a pilot, I might sort of catch up with this bloke'."

Some of our colleagues are in Staffordshire, where 46 veterans and their families are being hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Here's the veterans posing together for a picture at the National Memorial Arboretum:

Image source, Annie Delaney/BBC

Sophie Parker
BBC News, Wiltshire

Earlier today, a World War Two restored tank roared down the high street in Melksham, Wiltshire, for a visit as part of VE Day celebrations.

Jim Clark got it up and running after getting hold of it in 1999.

The town also has cascades of poppies, a picnic for schoolchildren and community lunch and tea dance.

Image source, Reuters

We can now have a closer look at the wreaths King Charles and Prince William placed at Westminster Abbey's tomb of the unknown warrior earlier today.

The King's message on the wreath simply reads: "We will never forget" and was signed Charles R.

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Handout

When 10-year-old Ana from London found out her grandfather joined the US navy during WW2, she wanted to learn more about what happened to him.

“I never met my grandfather Albert,” Ana says. “He was American and in 1942 he enlisted in the US navy while at university.”

Researching her grandfather for a school project, Ana discovered that in 1943 he operated an American naval patrol boat, protecting England from German submarines.

He also operated a boat during the 1944 Normandy invasions, says Ana. “He must have been terrified,” she says.

Ana says she feels sad knowing that Albert lost most of his friends. Almost all the classmates who enlisted at the same time as him died in the fighting. “Only two of them survived,” she says.

She hopes others will take time to learn more about the war. “Children my age need to learn about World War 2 to avoid another horrific war”, Ana says.

Kevin Fitzpatrick
BBC North West political editor

Pupils at a primary school in Greater Manchester say it's been interesting learning about how people marked VE Day in 1945.

Ten-year-old Polly says: "It's amazing to see how people celebrated but also how other people didn't because they had lost their loved ones."

She's been learning about the end of the Second World War at Caldershaw Primary school in Norden, Rochdale.

They're marking VE Day with a special picnic lunch to replicate the celebrations eighty years ago after weeks of learning about the history of the day.

Headteacher Ruth Trainer said: "We need children to understand what the impact of conflict is and why peace is so important while conflict is still going on around the world."

The school is decked with union flag bunting while the children are wearing a mix of red, white and blue.

Image source, Margaret Jones/BBC

Margaret Johns, 99, was working as a nurse in London when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies.

She caught the Tube to central London and partied outside the palace, staying up late into the night.

"They should have given us the day off the next day," says Johns, from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire.

Johns' education had ended abruptly at the age of 16, despite the fact she had been a good student.

For two years, at the peak of World War Two, she worked at the RAE in Aberporth, Ceredigion, testing ammunition.

She then went to London in 1944 for her nurse's training and worked through blackouts and bombings in London hospitals for five years before returning to Wales, continuing to work into her 80s.

"You can never understand what VE Day was like unless you experienced it," she said.