Casts are of fine quality and have the style at their fingertips. The BBC forces are excellent. Conductor John Andrews makes the best possible case for all three pieces, bringing spirit, dash and sensitivity to his task.

The performance on the new Dutton recording is marvelous. All of the singers bring the appropriate vocal material for their respective assignments, a complete and idiomatic embrace of Sullivan’s Victorian-era score, and crystal-clear diction. Conductor John Andrews elicits glowing and incisive performances from all concerned.

It’s hard to imagine that Richard D’Oyly Carte’s hard-working repertory company performed [Mr Jericho and Captain Billy] with anything like the sensitivity and finesse that they receive here from John Andrews and his cast...That same polish, vivacity and sense of style pays glorious dividends in Haddon Hall...for the quality of the performances, as well as the imaginative choice of repertoire, this recording sets a new standard in the presentation of English light opera on disc.

With Fiona Kimm and Henry Waddington in sterling support, both Mr Jericho and Captain Billy (and Martin T. Yates’s authoritative notes) make attractive extensions to the slightly subfusc main mansion.

More Gilbert-less Sullivan from John Andrews, now a dab hand at the composer’s easy melodic vein...Two well-filled CDs might be too much of a good thing, but there is stylish singing, above all from the veterans Henry Waddington and Fiona Kimm, and a charming Haddon Hall heroine in Sarah Tynan.

Sullivan’s attractive melodies, allied to the dullish words of Sydney Grundy, have their own worth, while Andrews’s conducting gusto generally draws good things from the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Singers and soloists, all of them palpably enjoying themselves.