Kit Hesketh-Harvey

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Kit Hesketh-Harvey
Born
Christopher John Hesketh-Harvey

(1957-04-30)30 April 1957
Zomba, Nyasaland (now Zomba, Malawi)
Died1 February 2023(2023-02-01) (aged 65)
Alma materClare College, Cambridge
Occupations
  • Musician
  • writer
Years active1980–2023
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1986; div. 2021)​
Children2
RelativesSarah Sands (sister)

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

Early life

Born in

choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied under John Rutter and joined the Footlights.[3]

Career

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).[3] 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.[4]

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. Another collaboration with Walker, The Granny Alphabet with his verses to Walker's photographs, was published by Thames and Hudson in 2013.[5] 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".[6] 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. 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.[7]

Hesketh-Harvey starred in the 1996 production of

Quote Unquote.[6]
He also presented one-off documentaries on off-beat subjects for Radio 4.

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

Grammy nominated, and he translated many other operas.[6]

Other musicals include Beautiful and Damned (2003).[9] He presented several extras on Radio 4, including Chanson (2000),[10] Hairspray and Harmonies (2009)[11] and Tanning Tales (2013).[12]

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.[citation needed]

Original libretti include Varjak Paw (composer Julian Phillips).

Gifford's Circus, writing the lyrics to War And Peace. He also wrote lyrics to the songs in Another Life (2001).[14]

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).[15] 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.[16]

His translation of

Viva la Diva, was performed in July 2022 as part of the Buxton International Festival.[19] He worked as a performer and lyricist with James McConnel; the duo performed regularly at London cabaret venues as Kit and McConnel.[17]

Personal life and death

In 1986, Hesketh-Harvey married actress/academic

London Evening Standard and the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.[3]
He lived in Norfolk and Cornwall.

Hesketh-Harvey owned All Saints' Church in Stoke Ferry[21] until his death on 1 February 2023, at the age of 65.[1][22]

References

  1. ^ a b O'Connor, Roisin (1 February 2023). "Kit Hesketh-Harvey, renaissance man of opera, film and theatre, dies suddenly aged 65". The Independent. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  2. ^ Greenstreet, Rosanna (25 March 1995). "Kit Hesketh-Harvey Entertainer and writer". The Independent.
  3. ^ a b c d e Coveney, Michael (3 February 2023). "Kit Hesketh-Harvey obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  4. ^ "Sondheim will teach at Oxford". Chicagotribune.com. 10 August 1989. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  5. ^ One year of books. "One year of books - Tim Walker & Lawrence Mynott, The Granny Alphabet". Oneyearofbooks.tumblr.com. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Obituary: Kit Hesketh-Harvey. Opera, May 2023, Vol 74 No 5, p550.
  7. ^ Choir Straights, 17 December 2009 and 14 February 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2023
  8. ^ Hesketh Harvey, Kit (16 December 2014). "Why I always play the panto Baddie. Muh-ha-ha!". The Daily Telegraph.
  9. ^ "Beautiful and Damned - A musical based on the lives of Zelda and F Scott Fitzgerald". zeldafitzgeraldmusical.com. Archived from the original on 13 September 2006.[dead link]
  10. ^ [https://archive.org/details/jeays.com-slash-press1/jeays.com-slash-press1.png jeays.com Chanson
  11. ^ BBC Radio 4 Hairspray and Harmonies
  12. ^ BBC Radio 4 Tanning Tales
  13. ^ Varjak Paw, Guy Dammann, 30 September 2008, Guardian. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  14. ^ Another Life (2001) - Soundtracks - IMDb, retrieved 1 October 2023
  15. ^ Gardner, Lyn (7 February 2000). "Five O'Clock Angel". The Guardian (Review). Archived from the original on 1 October 2023.
  16. ISBN 978-0007432042
  17. ^ a b White, Michael (10 February 2012). "Why Kit Hesketh-Harvey's raunchy little Traviata did for me what other, grander stagings never managed". Review. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
  18. ^ "The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko". Grange Park Opera. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  19. ^ "Buxton Opera House and Pavilion Arts Centre". Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  20. ^ Lambert, Victoria (6 July 2015). "'I've always preferred myself looking tanned – and still do'". The Daily Telegraph.
  21. ^ Bishop, Chris (2013). "Norfolk artists transform Stoke Ferry church into riot of colour". Eastern Daily Press.
  22. ^ "Kit Hesketh-Harvey, writer and performer who delighted audiences as one half of satirical duo Kit and the Widow – obituary". The Telegraph. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.

External links

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