Crossover music and popular classics
As grand opera and classical theatre are reinterpreted with new productions to keep it fresh and vibrant and to attract new audiences, so does the world of operetta and musical comedy, ... and in particular Top C's & Tiaras™. In the 1980s a rare phenomenon of entertainment programming took the world of popular music by storm.
In 2024 requests still ask by name for Top C's & Tiaras™ to be shown again. Bright Thoughts continues to receive requests from fans for DVD sets of the original shows even after 40 years. Requests are also for a new series to be made with a new cast and viewers suggest (to us) SkyArts, Talking Pictures, UKTV Play, MarqueeTV, the Event Cinema platforms and more recently BroadwayHD.
In 2024 requests still ask by name for Top C's & Tiaras™ to be shown again. Bright Thoughts continues to receive requests from fans for DVD sets of the original shows even after 40 years. Requests are also for a new series to be made with a new cast and viewers suggest (to us) SkyArts, Talking Pictures, UKTV Play, MarqueeTV, the Event Cinema platforms and more recently BroadwayHD.
A Star vehicle with celebrity guests
Top C's and Tiaras™, a brand which has provenance
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Top C's and Tiaras™ is not just the title of a show, it is a popular classical music brand with a rich heritage.
Created for an international market, it was devised by Neil Anthony. First broadcast on British television in 1983, Top C's was a trailblazer aimed to have popular appeal for the lucrative market in classical music, not just for the domestic marketing but also for European and American audiences and, potentially further afield. There has been nothing like it before nor since the main series first went to air. 40 years later audiences still asking for it by name. |
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The concept is deceptively simple. Tapping into the abundant canons of operetta and musical comedy, Top C's and Tiaras™ unashamedly presented classical music as glossy entertainment.
Consciously taking performances away from the theatre, the show(s) can be shot entirely on location for example in and around London, and at a lavish Downton Abbey-like stately home, as was the case in the original series. Audiences more used to the traditional presentation of orchestral music, are instead treated to opera stars recorded 'as live' in both intimate and formal settings in and around numerous locations and to the delight of our audiences.
The quality of the music often quick-paced and with high on-screen impact, orchestrations and arrangements more showbiz than traditional classical as demonstrated in the original series by the hugely talented Burt Rhodes and Harry Rabinowitz. The overall presentation was unlike anything seen before on television.
Consciously taking performances away from the theatre, the show(s) can be shot entirely on location for example in and around London, and at a lavish Downton Abbey-like stately home, as was the case in the original series. Audiences more used to the traditional presentation of orchestral music, are instead treated to opera stars recorded 'as live' in both intimate and formal settings in and around numerous locations and to the delight of our audiences.
The quality of the music often quick-paced and with high on-screen impact, orchestrations and arrangements more showbiz than traditional classical as demonstrated in the original series by the hugely talented Burt Rhodes and Harry Rabinowitz. The overall presentation was unlike anything seen before on television.
Top C's and Tiaras™, as both a brand and a proven format, is now being offered for licensing on a worldwide basis. Lending itself to event cinema, streaming and broadcast television, and theatrical staging, the brand is ready to tap into the large international audience who appreciate popular classical music. A great vehicle for the very best performing talent, and one which can continuously reinvent itself for different locations and to suit changing tastes and evolving technology.
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Neil Anthony, who has been instrumental in the conception and development of Top C's and Tiaras™, is available to advise on the many opportunities that exist to exploit this remarkable brand.
Top Cs won the channel’s most enthusiastic response by phone and letter for its stylish rediscovery of the middle ground of operetta." |
Iconic locations
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Top C's & Tiaras™ - Informality and intimacy, requiring only the screen audiences. Music in performance yet liberated from the proscenium arch, the concert hall and the conventions of studio.
Champagne and waltzes, romantic uniforms and glittering ballgowns; of Offenbach and Johann Strauss, Suppè and Messager, and Lehár, Coward and Romberg, Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe. The joys of dancing medleys, gypsy camps, comedy sometimes risqué, military themes, romance and unrequited love, mad dogs and Englishmen, and more. |
Top Cs and Tiaras pioneered a new, relaxed, unstuffy approach ... no tiaras, there is not much evening dress, no old-fashioned pomp and hand-clasping - and no audience ... they let their hair down together, not in a studio or theatre but a country house, singing around a piano to one another or wandering through the gilded rooms or the grounds. |
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Inspired for this millennium
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The brand, IP and trademark of Top Cs & Tiaras™ is the property of The Bright Thoughts Company Ltd.
Marilyn Hill Smith and Peter Morrison now retired from performance are the ideal choice to endorse and perhaps introduce Top Cs to existing audiences and to a new generation. Top C's & Tiaras has the potential of being the 'Strictly Come Dancing' of the opera world! |
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Marilyn Hill SmithEven 40 years after Top C’s was first shown I still meet people who adored the series, who ask why it has never been reshown, and why, despite its massive success and popularity, there has never been another such programme, before or since.
There is clearly a vast audience of lovers of light music and operetta, who remain neglected these days, and the unique format of this series, with its informality, but splendidly researched and presented music, would perfectly fill this gap, and inevitably drawing new devotees to the programme. |
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Peter MorrisonHaving appeared in very many TV shows, the combination of stand-up performance with a feature song for each singer and then the informal rehearsal elements, plus the elegance of Wrotham Park, not like anything I've ever done before or since.
A remake of Top C's is 'a must', audiences are missing out on a huge amount of enjoyment and fun! |
