SINGING the verbally tricky and intricate songs of Gilbert and Sullivan is a challenge for any actor. Get it wrong and it sounds like a breathless mess.

I was sitting in the back row of the Tacchi Morris Arts centre, yet I could hear every word each of the talented performers from the Taunton Amateur Operatic Society sang last week in their production of The Gondoliers.

Along with the top singing, the acting and comic timing was exceptional. I'm an old hand of G&S. But the evidence that this was a great night came from my Taylor Swift loving, 17-year-old daughter who said at the end of the show: "I want to see another one."

James Hastings