Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa celebrated her 69th birthday this week.
Kiri is soon to star in an episode of ITV’s hit series Downton Abbey.
She plays ‘Doris’, a time-travelling opera singer who visits the early 20th century aristocrat, ‘Lord Super-Injunction’ (Hugh Bourneville) to tell him how the next series will end. The visit fortuitously coming at the same time as the release of Kiri’s latest album.
The episode will also feature the historic moment when the game of Rugby was invented.
That scene involves a bunch of travelling Kiwis turning up unannounced and setting up their ‘Big Top Circus’ on Hugh’s front lawn, just as he is ordering ‘Parker’ the butler to bring him his evening cocoa.
Anyway, they stomp all over Hugh’s lawn and stick their tongue out at him through the window. This angers him so much that he grabs his queerly-shaped ball and runs head first straight at them.
Meanwhile, Kiri stands in the front porch singing ‘The World In Union’ until it’s ‘all over’. No doubt soaking up every drop of limelight she can lay her ‘Top ‘C’ on.
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Above: The next series ends with the entire downstairs staff facing a 'firing squad' for spilling the contents of a gravy boat over Maggie Smith.
