Simon Butteriss

The Bishop of Lax

Simon was a chorister at Westminster Abbey, ran away to play the title role in the first West End revival of The Winslow Boy, was a member of the National Youth Theatre and read English at Cambridge.

Other West End credits include: Sweeney Todd (Drury Lane), The Relapse (Old Vic), Cats (Gillian Lynne), Peter Pan and The White Guard (RSC London), An Italian Straw Hat (Shaftesbury), The Mikado (Savoy), Witness For the Prosecution (County Hall), and seasons at Donmar, Chichester, RSC, NT Studio, and Lyric Hammersmith.

Simon’s television credits include: French and Saunders’ Let Them Eat Cake, two series of By the SwordDivided, Stalky and Co, The Silver Buckle, Goodbye Mr Chips, Spitting Image, The Lenny Henry Show, London’s Burning, Doctors, She Stoops to Conquer, Ten Glorious Years, After the War, Candide, What Made Mozart Tic, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also wrote and presented the TV series A Motley Pair and the biopics A Gooseberry Fool and A Salaried Wit (Sky Arts).

His film credits include Mike Leigh’s Oscar winning Topsy-Turvy and directing the Turandot sequences in the Warner Brothers movie Chasing Liberty.

Simon has sung the ‘patter’ roles in Gilbert and Sullivan at the Savoy Theatre, the BBC Proms and throughout the world; he also wrote and directed a five-part G&S drama for BBC Radio 4. In Opera, he has sung roles at numerous opera houses worldwide, from La Scala Milan to ENO, where he was a guest principal for sixteen years.

He has written, directed and translated for stage, screen and concert hall and has written a full- length staged concert piece for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s 2026-27 season.