The Noël Coward Trilogy

An inside look at the life and career of actor, playwright and composer Noël Coward, from his first blush of international fame to his late-life exile in Switzerland and Jamaica. Includes The Boy Actor, Captain Coward and Sail Away.

Part 1 -  The Boy Actor follows his meteoric rise to international fame at thirty: including how early influences as a young man shaped his works such as Private Lives and The Vortex.

Part 2 - Captain Coward focuses on his journeys to the Far East with Earl Amherst (which inspired famous songs such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen), as well as entertaining the troops during the war years and films In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter.

Part 3 - Sail Away follows Coward's cabaret triumphs in London and Las Vegas after the Second World War and his years as a tax exile in Switzerland and Jamaica, right up to his death. His long-term partner, the late Graham Payn shows us around Chalet Coward, and archive film reveals the glamorous poolside lifestyle he enjoyed, as well as his late successes: a cameo performance in The Kitchen, and the musical Sail Away as recalled by its star Elaine Stritch.