The Choral (2025)

Alan Bennett’s The Choral (2025), set in a fictional Yorkshire mill town, was a moving film. It was clearly enjoyed by the sell-out audience on a warm Summer night.  As was our splendid aircon.

Tanya’s brave, powerful introduction about her life journey and the impact of Rock Choir, made a strong impression on us all. The touching short films also set the scene. They showed how choirs bring people together and support them through troubling times.

The discussion group liked The Choral’s musical performances, which were well arranged. The World War One theme was, of course, touching. 

However, the scenes with Elgar (played strongly by Simon Russell Beale) did not impress with their accuracy.  His assessment of the choir’s creative, altered performance of Dream of Gerontius is harsh. “It’s where the film fell down,” said one member of the discussion group.

We couldn’t understand why he was represented as so rude, pompous, negative and difficult, when there is plenty of documentation of him sending supportive messages to amateur choirs he had heard or conducted.  He was often perceived as an outsider himself, having never been to music college.

We shared some warm-hearted family stories of Northern working-class choirs and talked about local buildings which were used for World War One casualties.

Ralph Fiennes, as Dr Henry Guthrie the choir master, subtly portrays his personal story. His performance was the best in the film. Henry’s grief that his male partner may be among hundreds of Germans killed at sea, is a moment of real pathos. We feel his pain while the choir rejoices.

We were uncomfortable about the frank sex scenes in the film, which felt gratuitous, as if present attitudes were being bolted on. Some scenes seemed highly unbelievable for the time.  Having said that, we then entertained ourselves using some very rude British double entendres for a while, which mystified our US Zoom visitor.

Although we had some concerns and criticisms, this is a film that reminds us of the loss of so many young lives in war. Its message is strong and it’s this that has captured audiences’ hearts.

Anne