The Choir

"The Choir" is a lovely mini-series (5 episodes) about the survival of a cathedral' school choir, with a top-notch cast that makes it all too believable how local politics in church and council alike can be poisonous to the extreme. James Fox, David Warner, Cathryn Harrison, John Standing, and Anthony Way (in real life a famous boy treble in his days) and a host of others deliver the goods and it's certainly fun to watch..

It is a solid-made series but with a dangerous high level of soap (especially the last episode). I could forgive this all were it not for the music. Or rather, lack of it.

It is a bitter irony that Gloucester Cathedral provided the magnificent backbone of the series, and when the choir sings you remember that England has indeed a very rich and very long choir tradition. But the overall background music of the series - in which music does play an important role! - is a general let-down. The composer, Stanislas Syrewicz, does know his stuff, but here we're invited to join the worst of pompous Victoriana 19th century music sounding a bit like Vaughan Williams on a very bad day, topped with a 'Panis Angelicum' which was sung by an angel, sure, but the bread was stale and it all sounded like an over the top orchestration by Stokowski.

For a mini-series involved in so much music that's a real let-down.