The Choir (TV series)
A BAFTA-winning series following Gareth Malone's choral missions.
The Choir is a BAFTA-winning BBC programme. It documents Gareth Malone’s efforts to instruct choral singing to individuals lacking prior opportunity or experience. The initial series debuted on 7 December 2006. Later installments include *The Choir: Unsung Town*, which premiered on BBC Two on 1 September 2009, and *The Choir: Military Wives*, broadcast in November 2011. The series began airing on BBC America during the summer of 2010.
The original 2006 series, spanning three episodes, followed Malone as he established a choir from nothing at Northolt High School, a Middlesex comprehensive with no prior choir tradition. He auditioned 160 pupils to select a 30-member group. After nine months of training, he took them to the 2006 World Choir Games in China. The documentary emphasized the emotional growth of the students as they moved past initial hesitation and worked toward Malone’s goal of competitive performance.
A one-off follow-up, *The Choir: Revisited*, returned to Northolt two years later to see how the young singers’ lives had changed.
The second series, *The Choir: Boys Don’t Sing*, aired in 2008. Malone brought his mission to Lancaster School, an all-boys school in Leicester with no singing tradition. The single-sex setting highlighted gender issues as Malone confronted the idea that “boys don’t sing.” He joined the teaching staff, earning colleagues’ trust while navigating classroom duties, bureaucracy, and staff politics. His aim was to form a 100-strong boys’ choir to perform at the Schools Prom concert in the Royal Albert Hall alongside the nation’s top school choirs.
*The Choir: Boys Don’t Sing – Revisited* was a one-off documentary where Malone returned to Lancaster School to check on former choir members and assess his lasting influence.
The third series, *The Choir: Unsung Town*, broadcast in September 2009, shifted focus from a school to a community. Malone worked in South Oxhey, Watford, a housing estate with a strong working-class culture and no choral tradition. He aimed to overcome stereotypes about choirs and motivate locals to sing together, ultimately creating a community choir and staging a choral festival on South Oxhey playing fields. The programme’s legacy included the South Oxhey Community Choir and South Oxhey Youth Choir.
- First aired
- 7 December 2006
- Network
- BBC Two
- Awards
- BAFTA for Best Feature (2007)
- Notable series
- The Choir: Unsung Town, The Choir: Military Wives
- Format
- Observational documentary series
Lore & Background
The original series of The Choir aired in three episodes in 2006, following Gareth Malone's attempts to start a choir from scratch at Northolt High School in Middlesex. He auditioned 160 pupils for a 30-strong choir and, after nine months of training, took them to China to compete in the 2006 World Choir Games. The series focused on the emotional journey of the choir members as they overcame reluctance to meet Malone's challenge.
The second series, The Choir: Boys Don't Sing (2008), took Malone to Lancaster School, an all-boys school in Leicester, where he tackled the perception that 'boys don't sing'. He aimed to form a 100-strong all-boys choir to perform at the Schools Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The third series, The Choir: Unsung Town (2009), shifted focus to the community of South Oxhey, Hertfordshire, creating a community choir and staging a choral festival. The fourth series, The Choir: Military Wives (2011), involved forming an all-women choir on two military bases in Devon, culminating in a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Reader's Guide
The Choir series is significant for its role in popularizing community choral singing in the UK, winning multiple BAFTAs and other awards. It demonstrated that people with no prior singing experience could form successful choirs, as seen in the creation of lasting groups like the South Oxhey Community Choir and the Military Wives Choir. The series also spawned special episodes for charity events such as Sport Relief, Comic Relief, and Children in Need. Its legacy includes the Military Wives Choir's Christmas number-one single 'Wherever You Are' and a US adaptation titled It Takes a Choir, which aired in 2014. The series highlighted the social and emotional benefits of group singing, particularly for isolated communities and military families.
Did You Know?
- The first series followed Gareth Malone starting a choir at Northolt High School, which had never had a school choir.
- The Choir: Unsung Town led to the creation of the South Oxhey Community Choir and South Oxhey Youth Choir.
- The Military Wives Choir recorded a CD single of 'Wherever You Are' that became the Christmas number-one single.
- The series won a BAFTA at the British Academy Television Awards 2007 for Best Feature.
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