The Choral: Ralph Fiennes plays a demanding chorus master in ‘funny’ new WWI film

29 October 2025, 14:00 | Updated: 29 October 2025, 16:21

The Choral featurette

By Classic FM

@ClassicFM

The original screenplay by Alan Bennett explores the humour and humanity at the heart of a community facing an uncertain future.

Ralph Fiennes is starring in a new Alan Bennett film about a chorus master in the First World War.

The Choral is set in the fictional mill town of Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, and follows the conductor and the men of a local Choral Society who have volunteered for the front, leaving the choir short of singers.

Fiennes plays the choir’s demanding conductor, Dr Henry Guthrie, who recruits an intake of teenage boys and girls into the choral society for a performance of The Dream of Gerontius by Edward Elgar, played in the film by Simon Russell Beale.

The film centres on the discovery of the joys of singing, as the boys grapple with the prospect of their imminent conscription into the army. Mark Addy, one of the actors, said: “It’s a shared experience of the joy of music and the important of music’s ability to uplift, to transcend people’s everyday trouble and strife.”

Choirs and singing together have long been a popular topic for films: from The Sound of Music and Fisherman's Friends to Pitch Perfect and Les Choristes, people have always been drawn to the heart and community that choral films can bring.

Read more: Ralph Fiennes to direct his first opera in Paris’ magnificent Palais Garnier

Who is cast in ‘The Choral’?

Ralph Fiennes plays demanding chorus master, Dr Guthrie, who recruits an intake of young singers into a choral society.

The film also stars Alun Armstrong, Roger Allum, Mark Addy, and Simon Russell Beale – who plays Edward Elgar.

The director Nicholas Hytner said: “A new screenplay from Alan Bennett is a major event and The Choral is as affecting and funny as anything he’s written in his long career. I am thrilled to be continuing my collaboration with him, and with the three remarkable leading actors.”

Read more: This female composer gave secret underground concerts during WWII

Composer George Fenton is reuniting with Hytner for the project, having worked with him The Madness of King George, The History Boys, The Object of My Affection, The Crucible, Center Stage and The Lady in the Van.

Did Ralph Fiennes learn to conduct for ‘The Choral’?

Natalie Murray Beale, an acclaimed Australian conductor and music director, walked Ralph Fiennes through “what it means to conduct”, in the words of The Choral’s musical director, Tom Brady. Murray Beale previously coached Cate Blanchett to portray an orchestral conductor in TAR.

Brady coached all the actors to sing on camera in the choral society.

Read more: Gustavo Dudamel jokingly offers Cate Blanchett LA Phil conducting job

When is ‘The Choral’ released?

The film will premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for domestic distribution.

The Choral will be released in cinemas worldwide on 7 November 2025, including in the UK.

Watch the trailer for The Choral