Episodes
Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard (BBC 4 Sunday 28 May 2023)
Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard airs Sunday 28 May 2023 on BBC 4.
This new production by English National Opera of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, which is set in the Tower of London, is stunning.
Sadly, the dashing Colonel Fairfax has been given a death sentence. Will his old friend Sergeant Merryl of the Beefeaters come to his rescue? What will happen to Phoebe, Merryl’s daughter, who has developed an unhealthy obsession with the colonel?
A high-octane caper with unexpected turns, replete with forbidden loves, fantastical plots, and unrequited adoration. The opera features several memorable songs, including “I Have a Song to Sing, O!,” “When a Wooer Goes a-Wooing,” and “Free From His Fetters Grim,” and is generally considered to have one of Sullivan’s best scores.
Casting includes Tony and Olivier Award-winning stage and screen actor Richard McCabe, who makes his operatic debut as the comic baritone travelling jester Jack Point, and sets the opera in the 1950s, the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard airs Sunday 28 May 2023 at 8.00pm on BBC 4
Featured Image Credit: BBC 4