Orchestra of London, Band of the Grenadier Guards, Conductor: Isidore Godfrey 1982 Brent Walker Productions (video) – Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Conductor: Alexander Faris; Stage Director: David Pountney 1991 D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: John Pryce-Jones 2013 Lamplighters Music Theatre (with dialogue) – Conductor: Baker Peeples Cultural influence British politics When Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister, the press joked about the line from the opera, "This comes of women interfering in politics!" Lord Falconer, who served as Tony Blair's second Lord Chancellor, was reportedly influenced by Iolanthe in his moves to reform or disband the office. Effect upon Chief Justice Rehnquist William H. Rehnquist, former Chief Justice of the United States, was an avid Gilbert and Sullivan fan and was inspired by the costume of the Lord Chancellor, in a production of Iolanthe, to add four golden stripes to the sleeves of his judicial robes. The next Chief Justice, John G. Roberts Jr., did not retain the ornamentation. In 1980, while an Associate Justice, Rehnquist, in his dissenting opinion in the case of Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, compares these words of the Lord Chancellor to the "flavor from the various opinions supporting the judgment in this case": The Law is the true embodiment/Of everything that's excellent,/It has no kind of fault or flaw,/And I, My Lords, embody the Law. Adaptations The Ratepayers' Iolanthe was a 1984 musical adapted by Ned Sherrin and Alistair Beaton. Sherrin directed and won a Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Musical for the musical's "conception". Literature and music The science fiction writer Isaac Asimov was a Gilbert and Sullivan fan. His Foundation Trilogy was conceived after his reading Iolanthe started a train of thought about military empires. Also, in "Runaround", a story in Asimov's I, Robot, a robot, while in a state similar to drunkenness, sings snippets of Gilbert and Sullivan songs, including "The Nightmare Song" from Iolanthe. In Michael Chabon's 2004 novel The Final Solution, Bruno the parrot sings bits from Iolanthe. The eponymous hero of David Nobbs' The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin has "Iolanthe" as a middle name, allegedly due to his being born during a performance of the opera. An illustrated booklet, A Parody on Iolanthe, was written and published by D. Dalziel in 1883 and concerns the Chicago & Alton Railway. In his 1974 album Todd, Todd Rundgren performs the "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare