Since emerging in 2011 with his directorial debut Black Pond, Will Sharpe has played a series of likeable curiosities and engaging oddities in TV shows such as Giri/Haji, The White Lotus and Too Much. For the first time since taking on the role of a young Isaac Newton while at the Royal Shakespeare Company in his early 20s, Sharpe is getting into the mindset and crawling under the skin of a historical household name. Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus was turned into a big-screen hit in 1984 but this mini-series takes another stab at capturing the notorious rivalry between Mozart (Sharpe) and Salieri (Paul Bettany) who are initially brought together via a German soprano Constanze Weber (Gabrielle Creevy) who will eventually become Wolfgang’s wife.

The drama is part of a Mozart season on Sky Arts which also features Mozart’s Women: A Musical Journey which analyses the complex heroines at the heart of his classic operas and is hosted by Lauren Laverne; Mozart: Genius For Hire explores how he defied tradition to compose, teach and perform on his own terms; and Mozart’s Sister gives a voice to Maria Anna, also a child prodigy, who continued writing music which her brother praised highly. This documentary investigates what happened to her work and considers whether she was in fact the true genius of the family. 

Amadeus is available on Sky Atlantic from Sunday 21 December.