Benjamin Britten: Britten’s Children by John Bridcut

Britten’s Children is a multi-award winning BBC documentary, now available for the first time on DVD (OV) without German translation and subtitles.

Children and childhood fascinated Britten throughout his life and inspired him to write some of his greatest music. John Bridcut’s compelling film illuminates Britten’s inner child through interviews with several children who inspired Britten, including the “boy Apollo,” Wulff Scherchen, and David Hemmings, the first boy to portray Miles in The Turn of the Screw.

The 2004 BBC documentary was winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Creative Communication Award and in Prague at the Golden Prague Television Festival: “a powerful and sensitively balanced film that presents a provocative subject with admirable clarity. A brave and beautiful film” The Times “A remarkable film, beautifully filmed. Never sensationalist. To present this subject, which in the wrong hands would have seemed embarrassing, with such skill, and to turn it into something that can explain what Britten’s music is about, is a great achievement.” BBC Radio “There is no dirty laundry being washed here. It’s a beautiful film, a fascinating search for traces of how Britten’s life is reflected in his music.” The Guardian