Son of Cornwall
Sky Arts

Son of cornwall (14 June), Lawrence Richards’ film about his father, the operatic tenor John Treleaven, was a quiet and unexpectedly deep pleasure. It might have gone on a bit too long, and rambled over the same ground rather too often – but it was made with such palpable affection, that really didn’t seem to matter.

Treleaven was born in 1950, in a tiny house in Porthleven, Cornwall, run by his mother as a bed and breakfast; his father “Jacko” Richards was a fisherman. Young John played the horn in the town band and sang in the male voice church choir before his singing voice was spotted by a local pianist who helped him apply to the Royal College of Music. Off he went to London, and by 1979 he’d made his debut at English National Opera. Before long, he was married (to the soprano Roxanne Folley) and had two children; they settled in Germany where they still live. Now, over 40 years later, after decades ­travelling the world for work, Treleaven is on the point of retirement and with his son has returned to look at his childhood home, to swim in the cold Atlantic waters of Cornwall and to chat, in his distinctive Cornish burr, about what turned out to be, in a ­pleasingly unflashy way, a life well spent.