The Archbishop of Canterbury backed Royal Wedding street parties as he delivered his Easter sermon at the city’s cathedral this morning.

Dr Rowan Williams told of his joy that the celebrations are being encouraged as he addressed the congregation on the idea of “true happiness”.

He said: “It’s nice and entirely appropriate that we are being encouraged to some public displays of shared celebration next Friday - let a thousand street parties blossom.”

The Archbishop also dropped TV hit Doctor Who into the sermon, recalling an episode about happiness.

He said: “Some of you might just remember an episode of Doctor Who a couple of decades ago called The Happiness Patrol, where the Doctor arrives on a planet in which unhappiness is a capital crime, and blues musicians lead a dangerous underground existence.

“But less dramatically, most of us know the horrible experience of a family outing where things aren't going too well and mum or dad keeps saying, through ever more tightly gritted teeth, 'This is fun, isn’t it?’”

He also touched on politicians’ pronouncements on “happiness rather than just prosperity” - a reference to the Government's proposals to try to measure the nation’s wellbeing.

He added: “Now it’s certainly a good thing that people have publicly acknowledged that there is more to life than the level of our gross national product, that we’re just beginning to say out loud that corporate prosperity divorced from personal and communal fulfilment or stability is an empty thing.”