Kit Hesketh-Harvey

His plays included Five O'Clock Angel, an adaptation of Maria Britneva Five O'Clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948–1982 (1990).

Christopher John Hesketh-Harvey (30 April 1957 – 1 February 2023) was a British musical performer, translator, composer, and screenwriter.

Born in Zomba, Nyasaland (now Malawi), Rhodesia and Nyasaland, into a Foreign Office family, Hesketh-Harvey was educated as senior chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and then at Tonbridge School in Kent.

He gained an Exhibition in English Literature as well as a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied under John Rutter and joined the Footlights.

Hesketh-Harvey worked as a staff producer for the BBC-TV Music and Arts Department, joining in 1980 and leaving to write the script for Merchant Ivory's Maurice (1987).

He won the 1988 Vivian Ellis Award for musical-theatre writers and subsequently studied with Stephen Sondheim, who had been appointed to the Cameron Mackintosh visiting professorship in Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford.

Hesketh-Harvey worked on The Vicar of Dibley series for the BBC.

He wrote Full Throttle, starring Rowan Atkinson, and Hans Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale (Hallmark).

He co-wrote the screenplay for Tim Walker's film The Lost Explorer.

His musicals written with composer James McConnel included Writing Orlando (Barbican 1988) and Yusupov (Bridewell Theatre).

Hesketh-Harvey starred in the 1996 production of Salad Days at the Vaudeville Theatre, and in Tom Foolery (Jermyn Street and national tour).

He co-devised and starred in the original production of the Sondheim revue Putting It Together.

He presented several extras on Radio 4, including Chanson (2000), Hairspray and Harmonies (2009) and Tanning Tales (2013).

He adapted and produced 'The Caribbean Tempest', starring Kylie Minogue, in Barbados and Sydney 2000.

He also wrote lyrics to the songs in Another Life (2001).

Other musicals include Beautiful and Damned (2003).

He adapted the English version of Jacques Offenbach's La Belle Hélène (2006) directed by Laurent Pelly for English National Opera.

His translation of The Bartered Bride for Charles Mackerras at the Royal Opera House was Grammy nominated, and he translated many other operas.

As part of this duo, he wrote lyrics for Stuart Hancock's cantata Choir Straights, which the duo and the Bath Camerata premiered at London's Wigmore Hall in 2009 before restaging it in February of the following year at Rook Lane Chapel in Frome.

He co-produced Shadwell Opera's Magic Flute at the Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh, (Herald Angel Award 2009).

He wrote regularly for Country Life magazine (2009 IPC's Writer of the Year).

His radio play A La Villa Bab Azzoun, produced by Moving Theatre, won the 2009 Prix Europa.

His work for military charities took him to the conflict in Kabul, as well as to Saudi Arabia, Africa, and the Far East.

His translation of The Merry Widow was in Opera North's 2010/11 season, transferring in July 2011 to the Sydney Opera House.

Armonico Consort staged his 'Monteverdi's Flying Circus'.

In 2011, he starred in Cowardy Custard (national tour) with Dillie Keane.

He co-starred with Tim Minchin in the first BBC Comedy Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011: the last time that Kit and the Widow appeared on stage together.

He starred annually in pantomime at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, always playing the baddie.

He made occasional appearances on many BBC Radio 4 series, such as Just a Minute and Quote Unquote.

He also presented one-off documentaries on off-beat subjects for Radio 4.

He collaborated in 2011 with Gifford's Circus, writing the lyrics to War And Peace.

In 2011 he directed for Merry Opera his own adaptation of La belle Hélène, Troy Boy, and in 2012, his adaptation of La Traviata.

Another collaboration with Walker, The Granny Alphabet with his verses to Walker's photographs, was published by Thames and Hudson in 2013.

He wrote and co-directed their production of The Magic Flute at the Riverside Studios, London, in 2013.

In Spring 2015, Hesketh-Harvey appeared alongside Juliet Stevenson as a guest in Janie Dee's Dream Queen as part of the London Festival of Cabaret in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe.

Original libretti include Varjak Paw (composer Julian Phillips).

His first detective novel, For The Shooting, was published in October 2017.

Hesketh-Harvey wrote and sang with pianist Richard Sisson for over 30 years, as a musical comedy duo Kit and The Widow, "showcasing his tart, precisely observed and witty style, delivered with exquisite pronunciation and perfect timing".

They had a number of West End and Broadway theatre runs and international tours, notably with the late Joan Rivers.

They made CD recordings, had their own series on BBC Radios 3 and 4, and two TV specials on Channel 4.