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These three programs trace Noël Coward’s life, career and legacy.

Part 1: The Boy Actor follows his meteoric rise to international fame at thirty: including how early influences as a young man shaped his works such as Private Lives and The Vortex.

Part 2: Captain Coward focuses on his journeys to the Far East with Earl Amherst (which inspired famous songs such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen), as well as entertaining the troops during the war years and films In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter.

Part 3: Sail Away follows Coward’s cabaret triumphs in London and Las Vegas after the Second World War and his years as a tax exile in Switzerland and Jamaica, right up to his death. His long-term partner, the late Graham Payn shows us around Chalet Coward, and archive film reveals the glamorous poolside lifestyle he enjoyed, as well as his late successes – a cameo performance in The Kitchen, and the musical Sail Away as recalled by its star Elaine Stritch.

Nominated for the:1999 Huw Wheldon Award for the Best Arts Programme or Series BAFTA Award
1999 Grierson Memorial Trust Awards

Part Two
CAPTAIN COWARD
Chapter 1 Period of consolidation
Chapter 2 Travels
Chapter 3 ‘In Which We Serve’
Chapter 4 ‘Brief Encounter’

Part Three
SAIL AWAY
Chapter 1 Post-war years
Chapter 2 Night club entertainer
Chapter 3 Jamaica
Chapter 4 Renewed success

“An excellent portrait that’s part tribute and part critique, this is highly recommended.”
- Video Librarian