Culture in Lockdown: Hadley Fraser – ‘At times like these, you don’t want your TV shows to ask that much of you’

Films
We have a three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, so Disney Plus came out at just the right time. We’ve been going through the back catalogue of animations on there. I hadn’t seen Coco, so we watched that, and now that’s all she wants to watch. Even though I now wish it never existed, I found it quite mesmeric the first time we watched it. The simplicity of the story, the tone of the world, the music – I thought it was terrific. I could probably sing you most of the soundtrack right now.

We watched all the old classics, too. My favourite is The Jungle Book, but our daughter seems to resist that, which is annoying for me. It was the first film I ever saw in the cinema, so it has a special place in my heart, but she seems allergic to it.

TV
I’ve loved The Mandalorian. I’m a big Star Wars fan, and I really admire the way they have managed to keep it quite small-scale, almost like a Western, rather than turning it into some sort of outlandish space opera.

There are times in one’s life, and I’m in one of those times at the moment, where you don’t want your literature, your books, your television, your film and your music, to ask that much of you. I don’t mean to denigrate the production of The Mandalorian, because it’s incredible, but I find it a very comforting watch.

Books
Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk has sat on my bookshelf for a very, very long time, and I eventually got round to reading it. It is a profoundly beautiful piece of work. Having lost my father a couple of years ago, I found it very helpful. ‘Helpful’ is too facile a word, actually. It struck a lot of chords with me. She has a new book out now – Vesper Flights – and that’s definitely going on my Christmas list.

Music
I listen to an awful lot of music, but there are two albums I have been really enjoying. One is called Jaroso by Darrell Scott. He’s a peculiarly gifted and beautiful songwriter, and an incredible guitarist. I discovered him when I was living in America. He toured over here five or six years ago, and I dragged Rosie along to see him. It was great. There was me and Rosie and a bunch of other crusty people, one of whom was Bill Oddie.

The other album I’ve been listening to is Suite: April 2020 by Brad Mehldau. He’s an American jazz pianist whom I revere and ape in equal measure. He can play Bach preludes and Massive Attack songs with equal power and precision. He’s definitely a modern great of jazz.

What theatre work have you been doing?
Rosie and I did three performances of Before After [a new musical by Stuart Matthew Price and Timothy Knapman] that were live-streamed from Southwark Playhouse. Obviously, we didn’t have to socially distance from each other; we came as a bubble. We are always quite conscious not to come as a pair, but it is a real thrill to work with her when I do. It was odd performing in a theatre without an audience, though.

And I have recorded some songs for Treason, a new concept musical by Ricky Allan. Tracks are being released every two weeks. In a sort of Hamilton way, Ricky interprets historical events in a modern fashion. His music has a nice balance between something contemporary and something that could have been around at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. There are some beautiful vocal arrangements.

Tracks from Treason the Musical are released every two weeks on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify