Actor: John Bridcut

Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask

The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman. But Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music. Featuring specially filmed performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The Passions of Vaughan Williams

Fifty years after his death, this musical and psychological portrait of Ralph Vaughan Williams explores the passions that drove a giant of 20th-century English music.

Britten's Endgame

To mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, Britten’s Endgame explores the composer's creativity in the face of death. Those closest to him watched anxiously as he raced to complete his final opera, Death in Venice, in defiance of medical advice, tackling an edgy subject with many resonances in his own life. His eventual heart operation left him incapacitated and prematurely old and frail, yet somehow he rediscovered his creative urge to produce two late masterpieces. This is a rich and poignant film about Britten’s final years, and the impact of what Peter Pears called 'an evil opera'.