Gareth Malone returns to mentor singers from staff at Royal Blackburn Hospital and families hit by Covid after shunning stardom in the US
- Gareth Malone scored a Christmas No 1 in 2011 with the Military Wives Choir
- He headed for the US to launch a singing show, but is now back in the UK
- Malone is mentoring singers from parts of England worst-hit by coronavirus
His career hit a high note as he brought the joy of choral singing to the public and global fame beckoned.
But Gareth Malone then decided to rein back his TV stardom and now he is focusing on putting a song into the hearts of people in the area of England worst-hit by Covid.
The presenter and musician, 46, who scored a Christmas No 1 in 2011 with the Military Wives choir and later launched a show in the US, admitted he is not keen on matching the international fame of TV chef Gordon Ramsay.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘For me what’s really important is not to feel a pressure of escalation.
Gareth Malone, 46, who scored a Christmas No 1 in 2011 with the Military Wives choir and later launched a show in the US, admitted he is not keen on matching the international fame of TV chef Gordon Ramsay.
The father-of-three’s latest venture, Blackburn Sings Christmas, sees him mentor singers from staff at Royal Blackburn Hospital and families hit by Covid.
‘There was a period where I got very caught up…I started [choir work] in a school and then I did a town and then I did the Military Wives and that went national – and then I did Sing While You Work and it got bigger and bigger.
‘And then I went to America and I filmed over there and it was like “Am I going to be Gordon Ramsay at the end of this? What’s going to happen?”
‘I felt like I’ve kind of pulled back from that over the past few years. It’s not really why I’m in this … I’ve always got pots boiling, but for me it’s about responding to what’s going on, working with people and trying to help them make music out of it.’
He added: ‘I’ve tried to shrug off the choirmaster [image]…It’s never for me been about the choir – it’s always been about the people and their stories and why you want to make music.’
The father-of-three’s latest venture, Blackburn Sings Christmas, sees him mentor singers from staff at Royal Blackburn Hospital and families hit by Covid.
The group includes trainee clinical scientist Tanviha Quraishi-Akhtar, 37, who was nearly killed by the virus.
Her family were told to prepare for the worst after she was struck down with Covid at 33 weeks pregnant.
Tanviha Quraishi-Akhtar with her daughter Sonumand son Kameel. Tanviha was 33 weeks pregnant with her son Kameel in Feb this year when she contracted Covid. She started getting breathless on Day 7 and was admitted to ICU, had an emergency C-section the following day (9th Feb). On the 17th she was ventilated and came round on April 1st.
She had an emergency caesarean section to deliver her son Kameel but doctors warned her husband she could suffer organ failure and die 24 to 48 hours after being put on a ventilator.
However, she later recovered and now says: ‘I’m incredibly lucky.’
Malone said he was ‘really anxious’ about getting the show’s tone right, adding: ‘How do we do a celebratory concert?
‘I just felt there was considerable risk of it just not being tasteful.’
The show will be screened on BBC2 at 8pm on December 23.
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