Actress, broadcaster, and comedian, Alexander Armstrong plays the role of narrator in this irresistible album of world premiere recordings, which delights in the magical colors of childhood memories. 'Not Now, Bernard' is a classic story by David McKee, set to music by Bernard Hughes (born in 1974) with melodic charm and a sense of subversive fun. Alexander Armstrong tells it alongside his companion Isabels Noisy Tummy as well as Hughes's The Knight Who Took All Day, which challenges the chivalric convention with its subversive story of women's empowerment. Conductor Tom Hammond and the members of the Orchestra Of The Swan shape fascinating interpretations, enriched by Armstrong's joyful narration. They also raise a cacophony of sounds in 'Malcolm Arnold's Toy Symphony' (1957), featuring a quail cuckoo, guards whistling, and gloriously irritating toy trumpets. The mood of the album darkens in the haunting melodrama of John Ireland, Annabel Lee, a dizzying setting of Edgar Allan Poe's final poem presented here in Bernard Hughes's specially arranged chamber version, before Armstrong moves on to Judith Weir's brilliant 'Thread'! (1981), one of the early works inspired by the caricatured images of the Bayeux Tapestry.
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