Access Cinema
The Choral
Linenhall Film Club
Tuesday, 2 June 2026
8pm
Tickets:
Full €7
Concession €5
Linenhall Film Club Season Ticket - €20
Contact Box Office for bookings: 094 9023733
(4 Films Summer Programme 2026)
1916. As war rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire has lost most of its men to the army. The Choral’s ambitious committee, determined to press ahead, decides to recruit local young males to swell their ranks. They must also engage a new chorus master, and despite their suspicions that he has something to hide, their best bet seems to be Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) – driven, uncompromising, and recently returned from a career in Germany. As conscription papers start to arrive, the whole community discovers that the best response to the chaos that is laying waste to their lives is to make music together.
Directed by BAFTA, Olivier and Tony Award winner NICHOLAS HYTNER (The Crucible) and written by BAFTA, Olivier and Tony Award winner ALAN BENNETT, The Choral marks their fourth writer-director collaboration following the acclaimed films The Madness of King George, The History Boys, and The Lady in The Van.
UK/USA, 2025
English, 113 mins
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Simon Russell Beale, Thomas Howes
Cert:12A
A reenvisioning of Elgar’s Catholic devotional that ties it in a profound and moving fashion to the time and place of The Choral, and the underlying idea that a little music, a little companionship, can’t stop the horror but it can provide a respite.
...a quiet and consistent pleasure: an unsentimental but deeply felt drama which subcontracts actual passion to the music of Elgar and leaves us with a heartbeat of wit, poignancy and common sense.
The Choral deftly changes gears between humour and poignancy: a laugh-out-loud first half becomes a profound second.
