UK/1953/80mins/U. Dir: Gilbert Gunn. With: Mervyn Johns, Clifford Evans, Maureen Swanson.

When Handel’s Messiah is chosen as the choir’s showcase piece, fierce rivalries flare to the surface in a small Welsh town over a coveted role in the local choir. The Lloyd and the Davies families squabble over who should be the contralto and crooning nearly leads to physical violence, until the entire Welsh village has been polarized for or against the concertmaster’s decision. With a lovely performance from Rachel Thomas as miffed housewife Mrs Lloyd and featuring the debut of Rachel Roberts as Bessie the Milk.

+ Short: Samba Paloma, 1998

In Welsh it’s called ‘cythrel canu’ — the competitive singing urge that can bring out the worst in this nation of peace-lovers! And it’s not only humans who succumb, as demonstrated in this animation short by Gerald Conn and Chris Elliott, which presents a group of disgruntled pigeons improvising their own instruments to compete with a human Samba group in The Hayes, Cardiff. Made as part of the Cardiff International Animation Festival, and shown at Cinekids Festival, Guggenheim Museum, New York.