Last Choir Standing - Coming Soon
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008More Prime Time Reality Family Fun
Amateur choir is to be given a prime-time face-lift on a new show hosted by Myleen Klass and Nick Knowles. Last Choir Standing, to be shown on BBC1, will scour the country for the choir with the most talent, passion and pizzazz. The two presenters will be joined by a panel of judges, X-factor style – the much-loved Tenor Russell Watson, Holby City actress and west-end singer Sharon D. Clarke, and seasoned choral conductor Suzi Digby OBE. The 27 choirs who make it onto the programme will gradually be whittled down to six, when the audience decide who to keep and who to boot.
The choirs couldn’t be more diverse, from a group of hip-hop street kids who struggle to follow the music or the conductor and the all-male Hertfordshire Police Choir to a group of handbag-wielding housewives singing Britney Spears.
Singing in choirs is apparently one of Britain’s favourite pastimes with over 25,000 registered choirs and at least half a million members. “It’s one of the things the UK truly excels at,” says Suzi. “More than any other country, we have an amazing amateur tradition. We are the only country with a 1,000-year unbroken tradition of cathedral choir schools. It is one of the things we really do well.”
Nonetheless, choirs have not always been seen as cool and many of us hold back from singing in public. “There was this idea that if you were going off to choir practice, you were a sad loser,” Suzi continues.
“People also get a psychological block about singing. Parents say their children can’t, siblings laugh – it doesn’t take much for it all to shut down.”
Still, the programme aims to raise the profile of choral Singing. Co-host Nick Knowles, better known as the host of DIY SOS and City Hospital, enthuses that “The public will be treated to some fantastic performances from all the choirs, and it will ultimately be up to them to decide who will be the Last Choir Standing. This will be entertainment television at its best – getting the whole country involved.”
Last Choir Standing will air on Saturday Nights on BBC1 next month.
