Catch up TV

Episode 28 May 2023

English National Opera’s sparkling new production of the much-loved Gilbert and Sullivan classic, set in the Tower of London.\n\nThe dashing Colonel Fairfax is under sentence of death. Can his old friend, the Beefeater Sergeant Merryl, save him? And what of Merryl’s daughter Phoebe, who has fallen hopelessly in love with the colonel?\n\nA fast-paced caper with forbidden romances, fantastical plots and unrequited love unfolds, with some surprising twists at the end. Widely regarded as one of Sullivan’s finest scores, the opera is full of delightful tunes, including I Have a Song to Sing, O!, When a Wooer Goes a-Wooing and Free From His Fetters Grim.\n\nThe action has been shifted to the 1950s, the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and the stellar cast includes Tony and Olivier Award-winning stage and screen actor Richard McCabe, who makes his operatic debut in the role of the travelling jester Jack Point, the opera’s comic baritone.

Source: BBC 4