Topsy Turvy

Comedy, Drama, Musical

Jim Broadbent	Sir William Schwenck Gilbert
Katrin Cartlidge	Madame
Ron Cook	Richard D'Oyly Carte
Allan Corduner	Arthur Sullivan
Eleanor David	Fanny Ronalds
Dexter Fletcher	Louis
Lesley Manville	Lucy Gilbert
Kevin McKidd	Durward Lely
Timothy Spall	Richard Temple
Alison Steadman	Madame Leon

Director	Mike Leigh
Producer	Simon Channing-Williams; Georgina Lowe
Writer	Mike Leigh
Cinematography	Dick Pope

In Victorian London, the creators of a string of successful operettas, William Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) have hit a difficult patch. After ten years of successes, the reception of their latest work, Princess Ida, is far from enthusiastic. The failure brings to a head the uneasy relationship between the two men whilst their impresario, Richard D’Oyly Carte (Ron Cook), endeavours to keep the peace. A chance visit to a Japanese exhibition inspires Gilbert to write the libretto of The Mikado. Sullivan is reluctantly convinced to set it to music and the new piece goes into rehearsal. Set against the background of the backstage lives and problems of the performers, the film charts the progress of The Mikado from the fraught collaboration between two men who heartily dislike each other to the triumphant first night.