1. Christopher John Hesketh-Harvey was a British musical performer, translator, composer, and screenwriter.
26 Facts About Kit Hesketh-Harvey
1. 2.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey gained an Exhibition in English Literature as well as a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied under John Rutter and joined the Footlights.
3.
Kit 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.
4.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey 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.
5.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey worked on The Vicar of Dibley series for the BBC.
6.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey wrote Full Throttle, starring Rowan Atkinson, and Hans Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale.
7.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey co-wrote the screenplay for Tim Walker's film The Lost Explorer.
8.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey starred in the 1996 production of Salad Days at the Vaudeville Theatre, and in Tom Foolery.
9.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey co-devised and starred in the original production of the Sondheim revue Putting It Together.
10.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey co-starred with Tim Minchin in the first BBC Comedy Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011: the last time that Kit and the Widow appeared on stage together.
11.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey starred annually in pantomime at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, always playing the baddie.
12.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey made occasional appearances on many BBC Radio 4 series, such as Just a Minute and Quote Unquote.
13.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey presented one-off documentaries on off-beat subjects for Radio 4.
14.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey's musicals written with composer James McConnel included Writing Orlando and Yusupov.
15.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey adapted the English version of Jacques Offenbach's La Belle Helene directed by Laurent Pelly for English National Opera.
16.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey presented several extras on Radio 4, including Chanson, Hairspray and Harmonies and Tanning Tales.
17.
In Spring 2015, Kit 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.
18.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey co-produced Shadwell Opera's Magic Flute at the Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh,.
19.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey collaborated in 2011 with Gifford's Circus, writing the lyrics to War And Peace.
20.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey wrote lyrics to the songs in Another Life.
21.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey wrote regularly for Country Life magazine.
22.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey wrote and co-directed their production of The Magic Flute at the Riverside Studios, London, in 2013.
23.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey's updated version of Donizetti's comic opera Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, but entitled by him Viva la Diva, was performed in July 2022 as part of the Buxton International Festival.
24.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey worked as a performer and lyricist with James McConnel; the duo performed regularly at London cabaret venues as Kit and McConnel.
25.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey's sister is Sarah Sands, former editor of the London Evening Standard and the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
26.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey owned All Saints' Church in Stoke Ferry until his death on 1 February 2023, at the age of 65.