TLQ on TV soon...

Splendid time we had in Clerkenwell, where we were filmed singing various 18th-century songs for a series about music of the period from Handel to folk-song; orchestral, vocal and instrumental...
The three-part series goes out on BBC4 on Mondays 7th, 14th & 21st April... at 9PM
Rule Britannia
Fairly sure that our bits are in all three parts ...

We sing:
The Anacreontic Song (the original version of.../and also)
The Star-spangled banner,
Thomas Arne's Beer-drinking Britons,
& the catch,
Henry Lawes' Chloe at Cock's Auction... (a jolly glee/round)

The series has been put together by Suzy Klein & David Jeffcock - great to work with these excellent people, and can't wait to see the results... They have been working hard for at least six months on this.
As ever the 'magic' of TV was evident, as one can so see the cracks when you are there, but know it will look spectacular and seamless when we see the finished product... we created a drinking den in  a church crypt!
Glorious.

Temse, BE

As we watch the Thames on the TV swelling to fearful proportions, we remember being in Temse, BE a few days back...
Temse has the French name Tamise (from the Romano-Gaulish Tamisiacum), so has the same root as Thames...

But enough linguistics... we had a splendid time in Temse - a really quite large community, of which I am ashamed to say we had never heard!
They bought lots of songbooks and CDs, and thus...
...lovely to see a large audience... & our ever-hard-working BE agent, Thomas Van der Spiegel (NOT Thomas Van den Spiegel the basketball player)... great to see Thomas... and indeed to share some splendid dark Belgian beer after the show.

Eurostar a wee bit delayed on the way home, but not too much - home in time to watch England beat Scotland at Rugby.

Forgot to say that in Linkebeek, we saw our old friend and opera singer, Margaret Lysack - good to catch up with her.

We have some filming on Thursday for TV - some of it outside... hope the rain is good to us here in London (and everywhere else too)...
...more info on TV anon...

Engis & Linkebeek, BE

Two nights at Engis and one at Linkebeek allowed us to flex our linguistic muscles... Engis (near Liège) was indeed French-speaking (tho' we had been discussing a gig in En-giss and not On-jee); and Linkebeek is on the linguistic border just away from Brussels, so we spoke some Dutch, but tried not to get embroiled in the language frictions in this part of Belgium (there is a French-speaking mayor here)!

But a splendid time was had by all... we were performing a cappella concerts, Madrigal to McCartney, and as ever, enjoyed our forays into the Belgian countryside!

Now we have arrived in Temse for our last show of this tour... the glorious Eurostar home to flooded & wet England tomorrow! (the rain has just hit Belgium).