Happy Ending

I watched the last part of The Birth of British Music on BBC4 last night. About the programme itself I have little to say except to observe that it obviously comes from the same stable that brought us Kate Williams http://capeldunn.blogspot.com/search?q=Kate+Williams On this occasion, Kate’s part is taken by Charles Hazlewood, a (music) conductor, who shows excellent physical form as he walks unassisted around the streets of London.

I was particularly interested to learn of the existence of a certain Nahum Tate who decided to rewrite Shakespeare’s plays so that they ended happily. I think this is an excellent idea and one that could be extended to other productions like Titanic. It could be arranged to provide lots of lifeboats for everyone, including the orchestra. Where Shakespeare is concerned, I’m bound to say, I’ve always been in favour not only of happy endings for all but also of  “the sooner the better”, in the sense that the sooner the play ends the better it is for everyone.