The latest special series of The Choir hits our screen tonight and we at FemaleFirst welcome it back with open arms.
Featuring Gareth Malone, the ever chirpy choirmaster who seems to be able to make any group from soldier’s wives to Paralympians be able to sing together in perfect harmonies (or, just about good enough to scrape by, take your pick) we follow his attempt to bring some of the UK’s biggest workforces together under the banner of united singing.
From the doctors and nurses of London’s Lewisham hospital to the men and women of the Royal Mail, Malone’s struggles to turn them into a cohesive singing unit are always a delight to watch. Always wonderfully heart-warming, the Choir is the absolute antithesis to other, more ‘reality’ based singing shows.
The X Factor and The Voice are all about conflicts and drama, with contestants scrabbling over each other for a shot at the big time. Even the more musical based shows have this inherit competitive streak at the heart of them. Not with The Choir, a show where the only thing to be won and lost is pride.
With simply normal members of the public taking part too, there’s the wonderful sight of seeing just regular Joes and Janes discovering a new talent they always had bubbling inside of them is brilliant to see. When it all comes together, it truly is heart-warming TV.
Malone himself is an absolutely lovely TV presence too, still displaying all the heart-on-his-sleeves emotion that made him such a massive hit in the first place. While many ‘tutors’ appear falsely over-emotional though, Malone’s reactions, even at their most extreme always seems to come from a real place. Just another part of the jigsaw that makes him such an incredibly likeable host and guide.
It’s not about drama or hysterics; it’s all about togetherness and working together. In a post Olympics Britain, that might just be what everyone’s looking for.
The Choir: Sing While You Work starts tonight on BBC2
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in BBC Gareth Malone