A large cast of experienced actors do their best to breathe reality into this at times melodramatic and sentimental account of the fight to save an English Cathedral choir from the machinations of the wicked Dean, based on a Joanna Trollope novel. The adaptation (by her sometime husband Ian Curteis) is competent, and allows all characters to spread their wings. Filmed at Gloucester Cathedral, so there is physical verisimilitude. The scenes of interpersonal relations and stress are perhaps more convincing than the clerical politics. The music is good but as so often in literary adaptations, over-insistent; and the direction is at times somewhat florid. So, worth seeing or revisiting provided you manage your expectations.
