For the company's Festival of Britain season in 1951 Cranko choreographed "Harlequin in April", a "pantomine with divertissements" to music by Richard Arnell, as well as the comic ballet "Pineapple Poll", to the music of Arthur Sullivan (newly out of copyright) arranged by the conductor Charles Mackerras. Another collaboration with Mackerras followed in 1954 with "The Lady and the Fool", to music by Verdi. In January 1954 Sadler's Wells Ballet announced that Cranko was collaborating with Benjamin Britten to create a ballet. Cranko devised a draft scenario for a work he originally called "The Green Serpent", fusing elements drawn from "King Lear", "Beauty and the Beast" (a story he had choreographed for Sadler's Wells in 1948) and the oriental tale published by Madame d'Aulnoy as "Serpentin Vert". Creating a list of dances, simply describing the action and giving a total timing for each, he passed this to Britten and left him to compose what eventually became "The Prince of the Pagodas".