The Choral – a New Film Written by Alan Bennett, Starring Ralph Fiennes (and others)

Any new work by Alan Bennett is to be welcomed (at least in this house) and The Choral, the new film directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Bennett looks like it’s going to be a cracker.  Apparently, it’s Bennett’s first original screenplay in over 40 years. Plus, as you can see from the trailer below, the film is jam-packed with British acting talent, including the likes of Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter, 28 Years Later), Roger Allam (V for Vendetta, Pirates of the Caribbean), Mark Addy (Game of Thrones, Robin Hood), Alun Armstrong (The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing), Robert Emms (Andor, Atlantis), Simon Russell Beale (House of the Dragon, Thor: Love and Thunder), Thomas Howes (Downton Abbey, Dark Angel), Lyndsey Marshal (Being Human UK, Dracula), Jacob Dudman (The Last Kingdom, Medici) and relative newcomer Amara Okereke (Andor).  So, just a little screen experience between them, then…

The film is set in 1916, in the middle of the First World War.  As the war on the Western Front intensifies, the small town of Ramsden in Yorkshire has seen many of its young men waved off to war, meaning that its choral society is a little short on the male-voice front – even their best tenor is missing in action, presumed dead. 

However, its committee is ambitious and decided to try and recruit males too young for conscription to their ranks.  They have to find a new chorus master and their collective eye rests on Dr Henry Guthrie (Fiennes, seen above being harangued by local kids), a rather difficult character whose previous career was in… Germany (which of course raises local eyebrows as well as suspicions).

Yet despite these barriers, the community will find that making music together is a cathartic response to the chaos and damage of war.

With a triplet of themes – resilience, recovery and reconciliation – The Choral looks to be a film that is much needed at the moment.  As you might expect from a script by Alan Bennett, the humor is very... British.  One of the great lines from the trailer is when Fiennes' character is revealed to be an atheist, Addy's character says: "There are atheists now. There's one in Bradford".  Pure, undiluted Bennett. This is one of those trailers that makes you want to go and see the film right away.  

However, there is something of a wait! Prior to its US release, the film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2025, and be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 7, 2025. It is set for a limited release in US theaters on Thursday, December 25, 2025.

Watch the trailer for The Choral below.

Coward - Life, Death and Shell-Shock in the Trenches of World War One

During the First World War several hundred British soldiers were court martialed for cowardice. In the great majority of the cases the soldiers involved were conscripts who went on to be executed by firing squad.  Yet many of these soldiers were suffering from what we now call shell-shock.  It was many decades before this issue was finally confronted and the men were given pardons – much, much too late you might well say.

Coward is a short film which addresses the often brutal treatment meted out to those men.  It follows the journey of two cousins from Northern Ireland, Andrew and James, who enlist to fight in the trenches alongside their countrymen.  Like many young men at the time they joined up to both fight for their country and to make their families back home proud of them – they had no real idea of the hell of 1917 Ypres in to which they were about to march.

If you teach history or the poetry of World War One (Wilfred Owen suffered from shell-shock himself but as an officer was afforded much better treatment than the conscripted soldiers we see in this film) then I believe that Coward would make a great, short accompaniment to your lessons based around the Great War.  It is under half an hour in length and gives great visual insight in to the conditions in which the soldiers were expected to live and fight in the trench – the gruesome discovery of a body in the film is not for the faint hearted however!  In the UK I would imagine that this would be suitable for pupils preparing for their GCSE in either history of English but you should be warned that it does contain some strong language.

Yet Coward does provoke thought – and so discussion – about how ordinary soldiers were treated in World War One.  Their absolute disconnect from the natural world is extremely well portrayed here and Coward very ably shows the journey from young, well-scrubbed enlistees to battle weary troops to court martial to execution. 

Coward was directed by David Roddham and produced by Dave Komaroni with cinematography by Stephen Murphy.

The Tower of London Poppies: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red

At the beginning of August a major art installation began to take shape on and around one of London’s most historic landmarks – the Tower of London.  Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red by ceramic artist Paul Cummins now dominates the whole area.  Since the longest-serving yeoman warder at the tower placed the first ceramic poppy in the summer it has been followed by hundreds of thousands of others. On 11 November, Armistice Day, there will be 888,246.  Each one represents a British or Commonwealth soldier killed during the First World War.

Image emmadukew

The project, which has sadly not been short of detractors, is simply breath-taking. A drop of red for each of the men who perished in what was supposed to be the war to end all wars, this artwork does not seek to lionize these soldiers but to solemnly remember them and their sacrifice. It is always, despite the naysayers, forward looking.  Each and every poppy has been bought by members of the public: six armed forces charities will benefit to the sum of over £1 million each, to assist and support ex-service men and women in the future.

Image AdamNSinger

Why Should We Remember the First World War?

You may have seen the sea of ceramic poppies outside the Tower of London which we will be featuring on Kuriositas this weekend.  The installation is known as Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, and marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. This video accompanies the display at the tower and asks you to ponder three questions.  See what your answers are.

1101: Remarkable New Sculpture Commemorates the First Minute of Peace after the Great War

The small seaside town of Seaham in the North East England unitary district of County Durham has, quietly and with only little reverential fanfare, unveiled what many are hailing as the most significant piece yet of contemporary art to commemorate the First World War.  1101 (otherwise known in full as Eleven-O-One) by local artist Ray Lonsdale is an almost three meter high sculpture in corteen steel of a single British soldier, head bowed and rifle still in hand. It has been an immediate success with local people, who have already nicknamed it Tommy (slang for an ordinary British soldier which although established in the 19th century is particularly associated with the First World War).

Image Credit Flickr User Bryony Taylor