Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Choir - Military Wives with Gareth Malone
Posted by Dave Amitri on 7 November 2011 - 11:21pm.
Grown man cries at telly.......again!
Wives and girlfriends of soldiers serving in Afghanistan put together in a choir by young Gareth and doing Bob Dylans (and Adele) "Feel My Love" in a Devon market in front of 500 people. Simon Cowell would give his Botox allowance and new cheekbones for real emotion on this scale. This and Frozen Planet makes my licence money a bargain on their own. Bugger me, telly eh?
Coming to iPlayer soon apparently http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0175nh5/The_Choir_Military_Wives_M...
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On the other hand...
It's BBC programmes like this that makes me think about chucking the TV out the window and demanding a refund on my licence. The worst kind of schmaltz.
Agreed
The modern attitude towards soldiers is bizarre. They should be afforded a dignified respect instead of this mawkishly sentimental drivel.
My mate's in the RAF. If I referred to him and his colleagues as 'our brave boys' in his company, he'd probably headbutt me.
Decent pay,
equipment, conditions and compensation for injuries would also be helpful.
The worst kind of schmaltz?
Really? I just thought it was a terrific way of showing the people left behind and not the usual approach from the Ross Kemp style front line shows and news stories. The women were wonderfully ordinary yet different and joined by common concerns and issues. Gareth Malone came across as a sincere, intelligent teacher able to bring this diverse bunch into a group able to hold a tune and yes with emotion but a genuine emotion. I am an old softy but I also have a cynical side that wasn't touched by a single moment of this as I was transfixed by the "Feel My Love" song. Opinions keep places like this alive and you are completely entitled to yours, you're obviously not alone. Still I'll be watching next week and no doubt blubbing again when they perform at The Proms.
I'm with you Dave.
I say, old chum, I seem to have some grit in my eye.
*wipes eyes, surreptitiously sniffs*
Sounds good
I like a bit of choral (fnurr). I'll keep an eye out for that. These amateur efforts are always so much more interesting than the X-factor balloon-juice.
My boy.
My boy marched through town recently with his regiment, it was stirring stuff, & I dont mind admitting that I had a tear in my eye.
When it was all over, & he came home, I asked him what did he like about the day (if anything).
He said "The free bar in the hotel was good".
Dats my boy.
We enjoyed it at Fox Towers.
We always do if Gareth is involved; it's obviously edited to within a nanometre of reality, but all the same, he does have a good track record of producing stuff of a surprisingly high quality from unpromising beginnings.
Great telly; far, far better than another celebrity filled, antiques laden, home buying, move to the country, laugh at the chavs, boil your blood chasing thieves and con-men fest.
Gareth Malone is a national treasure
"Where did you dig 'im up?" I hear some say.
But seriously, the lad has amazing drive and enthusiasm, invariably in the face of quite the opposite. The military wives programme was fantastic, and there's more to come. But more importantly, it helps us understand what these ladies have to cope with each day their hubby is away in Afghanistan.
hubby is away in Afghanistan.
Its not a barrel of laughs being a parent with a son in Afghanistan.
Instant cure for constipation ?
We interrupt this programme to bring you a news flash...
Works every time.
How do you think the
husbands and boyfriends will feel about their wives doing this Jack? I is it a good thing?
Good question Dave
I think that whenever I was deployed away during my time in the RN, if my late wife Karen had been asked to do something like this she would have run a mile.
These days? Not so sure, I think most people are open to the idea of reality TV, so I think that a lot of service people would be quite chuffed that er indoors was doing something like this.
I am waiting for 'Dads choir' - My singing is like saturday night Karaoke - without the talent.
Even Gareth Malone couldnt polish a turd.
I'm in bits
watching the last episode. Fucking brilliant TV, catch it if you can
Totally agree.
Life affirming stuff based upon real talent, genuine effort and gutsy people, without recourse to flash, bamboozlement, rampant commercialism or lowest common denominator inanity. Fantastic telly.
I'm in two minds
Daughter was glued to the bullied kids one Gareth Malone has just done on CBBC (they were the choir who sang on Children In Need on Friday) and as a confidence building/self esteem exercise for those children no-one can doubt that he did an amazing job. But at the same time I find a lot of these reality TV things incredibly intrusive and emotionally manipulative (let's all cry over brave army wives...let's all laugh at gypsies...)
Well there's the rub.
The choir programmes are not "let's all cry", they're "let's see what can be achieved with some professional help, some grit and some hard work", and there's nowt wrong with that. It's inspiring, and inspiration is emotive, that's all.
One thing they are not, is "let's laugh at", and heaven knows there's everything wrong with that attitude.
Gareth Malone-
he looks like a younger, thinner Steve Coogan doesn't he?
with all the attributes of
Alan Partidge.
I saw this Gareth fella doing a programme on sea shanties and he was just awful.
Well I had grit in my eyes last night
I didn't think it was over sentimental or mawkish at all.
It helps that Gareth is a genuine person who believes in what he does and gets the results.
I was swallowing hard after they sang for him, he looked genuinely moved.
Didn't the wife who sang solo have some formidable tattoos? Wouldn't fancy going home to her with a broken pay packet as my old man used to say!
A superb programme
Gareth deserves a medal for his work. Helping to give military wives a voice, amd allowing us to understand what they and their kids go through, has done us all a huge favour. Keeping in mind that some of those Dads just don't come home made the programme all the more poignant.