Celebs behind closed doors

When I first got Sky+HD installed I didn’t leave the sofa for about three weeks!

I love nothing better than chilling out with my wife Sarah infront of the TV while our baby Gracie is upstairs asleep. I’ll have my head down, under a blanket with the curtains closed and a beer – tea if I’m singing the next day.  If Gracie wakes up we can just pause the show with Sky+ HD. I series link a lot, too. I record the Simpsons but my real passion is Westerns. I’m a John Wayne man. Westerns look great in high definition – you can see all the detail in the landscapes, even the dust from the horses hooves.  Gracie and I also watch this incredible show of the sun rising on Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD.

I have a fantastic sound system I’ve hooked up to my TV, which is great for music – there was a brilliant documentary on Jimi Hendrix on Sky Arts HD recently. The channel is doing a great job of opening up music, ballet and opera to a new audience. This month, as part of the Sky Arts season, they are showing live English National Opera’s version of Puccini’s La Boheme, that I’m appearing in at the London Coliseum. I play Rodolfo and it will be sung in English rather than Italian, so that everyone can understand. It’s such a passionate piece – a real tearjerker. If you’ve never watched an opera, it’s a great one to start with - and as it’s on TV, you get a front row seat!

The sets are stunning – we have a fabulous Parisian cafe on stage.  The detail is amazing and in HD you’ll be able to see everything – I’ll now have to be careful what I say on stage when I’m not singing! In HD the sound is incredible too – you can  pick out all the nuances in the music, the individual instruments. In my opinion you don’t lose anything by watching opera on TV in HD – you gain something. I just hope the audience will love it as much as I do.

Source: Sky Magazine