The Choir: Sing While You Work - TV review

“I might have time in between C Sections . . .” comes the reply.

Welcome to the cheery world of The Choir where for the first five minutes it appears Gareth is just in the way of the very earnest staff of Lewisham NHS Trust.

Many of which have much more important life or death decisions to make rather than deciding whether to be a tenor or a baritone.

But Gareth isn’t going to give up easily.

This is the man who sealed a Christmas number one single with a choir comprising the wives of military personnel.

He even halted Simon Cowell’s X Factor juggernaut from scooping another bland chart-topper in the process . . . no bad thing!

The Military Wives became an overnight sensation performing at the Royal Albert Hall and recording an album in the process.

Now in its fifth series, the format is pretty set. The Choir: Sing While You Work doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel.

This series takes Mr Malone into a host of workplaces to try and bring people together to find their voice.

This week, Gareth tried to shape surgeons, hospital porters and midwifes to form his latest musical masterpiece.

And despite the auspicious start soon the staff are falling over themselves to audition for the pied piper of the high note.

Take straight-laced cardio vascular consultant Eddie who was disappointed when he didn’t get to sing AC/DC’s track If You Want Blood.

There was hospital porter, come wannabe rapper, Aaron, who practices his breathing techniques while lying on a wooden pallet in the stockroom.

We were also introduced to ‘star of the show’ Natalie – a speech therapist who works with children.

As the show unfolded not only did we find she had a good voice but also she was inspired to take up her career to help her communicate more with her daughter who suffers from deafness.

It’s that tug on the emotions that still sells the show.

Threading those people stories together was one of the great successes of the Military Wives, unveiling the emotion of those left at home with their lives on hold until their partners return from wartorn tours abroad.

While it was always going to be tricky to replicate that again, the show still has its merits. Seeing the genuinely shy hospital staff singing like their lives depend on it gives The Choir the feel-good factor to brighten your day.

Despite all the usual trials and tribulations before the big event, the choir rose to the occasion for a performance of the aptly titled Everybody Hurts by REM in front of their delighted friends and family.

Next week will be a choir from the postrooms of Royal Mail.

Those looking for reality TV style brutal put downs as another tone-deaf hopeful gets served up for ridicule will be sadly disappointed.

If all this sounds a bit saccharine, rest assured. There’s none of the forced X Factor style sob stories here.

I’ll admit Gareth occasionally takes the consoling Dermot O’Leary role but it’s not shoved in your face like the aforementioned decidedly tired looking show.

Although producers can’t resist building the series to a crescendo by pitching the choirs against each other in one final performance in front of . . . the judges!

Gareth himself described last night’s show as musical medicine. I say it’s the perfect antidote to X Factor.

Andrew Turton