The hugely popular Gareth Malone recounts the
heart-warming stories and transformations behind the
award-winning BBC2 series The Choir For the first time,
Gareth reveals everything he has learned from working
with so many groups of memorable people, including the
record-breaking Military Wives and latest series of The
Choir being shown this Autumn. Gareth was an unknown
Choirmaster when he arrived on British TV screens five
years ago. Boyish, irrepressible and determined, Gareth
took on a collection of kids from the most unlikely
comprehensive and turned them into a talented performing
choir. This was the beginning of a national love affair
with a bow-tied and undeniably charming young man, and
it was also the start of a national rediscovery of the
joy to be found in choirs. Since then, each series of
The Choir has gone on to even more demanding challenges,
taking young offenders to Glyndebourne, regenerating
disparate and far from affluent communities, and finally
in an extraordinarily emotional journey, Gareth took a
group of women whose partners were serving in
Afghanistan to a Christmas Number One.This Autumn, in a
new four-part series, The Choir: Sing While you Work,
Gareth will be challenging four new Choirs to compete
against each other. This is his memoir of a period in
which he transformed the lives of thousands but also
gained a lifetime's worth of experience in human frailty
and strength. Written with real joy, emotion and
amusement, the twenty chapters each deal with an
individual moment - both break-throughs and disasters -
or an individual character that has contributed to this
extraordinary adventure. Whether he is explaining the
importance of biscuits or the role of the elderly in a
community undertaking, remembering the scrappy kid who
never quite delivered or the mother who had most to
prove this is an incredibly moving journey. It is his
adventure...and ours. |
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