The Fool on the Hill is a ballet made by British choreographer Gillian Lynne for The Australian Ballet, created specifically for television in a joint commission with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It takes its title and starting point from the Beatles song of the same name, with a score arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery drawing on Beatles material and built around figures such as Eleanor Rigby and Sergeant Pepper.
What is danced
The article does not describe the choreography itself — no steps, holds, or technical vocabulary are recorded. What can be established is the dramatic frame: the ballet is built as a sequence of character vignettes drawn from Beatles songs (Eleanor Rigby, Sergeant Pepper) rather than a conventional narrative, which suggests a revue- or portrait-ballet structure rather than a single through-danced plot, but the article gives no detail on how those characters were actually moved. Robert Helpmann performed the role of Sergeant Pepper in the original television production, a notable piece of casting given his stature as a dancer-actor, but again the article records only the fact of his appearance, not his movement material.
Context
The work belongs to a mid-1970s moment when Australian companies and broadcasters were experimenting with dance made expressly for the television screen rather than adapted from the stage afterward — the article specifically frames this as The Australian Ballet's first work commissioned for television. It also sits within a wider vogue for setting classical or classically-trained companies to popular rock and pop scores, here via Lanchbery's orchestration of Beatles songs, a crossover strategy typical of choreographers moving between ballet and commercial musical theatre in this period.
Staging history
The ballet began as a television production (commissioned jointly by The Australian Ballet and the ABC, directed for the screen by Bryan Ashbridge) and won a number of international television awards in that form. It was subsequently revised for the stage and given a live premiere at the Sydney Opera House on 28 April 1976.
How to watch it
Because the piece began life as a television commission before being reworked for the stage, a viewer should note where the choreography seems shaped for camera (close, character-driven vignettes tied to individual songs) versus material added or expanded for a theatre audience. Watch for how the Beatles' songs are used less as accompaniment than as character cues — Eleanor Rigby and Sergeant Pepper are named figures, so the ballet is likely organised as a set of character portraits strung together rather than a single continuous narrative.