Direct Talk

In a divided world, the need for
joy and unity is greater than ever.

One man believes
the inspiration and reconciliation

that comes from singing in a group can be
used to empower, heal and connect people.

Gareth Malone is a musician,
songwriter and choirmaster

who teaches singing to people who have
never had the chance or experience before,

in order to uncover
and cure social discontent.

Gareth has broadened
the appeal of choral music,

inspiring people of all ages
and backgrounds to sing,

through his award-winning documentary series,

his high-profile performances
and hit records.

Direct Talk met Gareth
at his studio in London.

What I love about music
is that it's mystical.

At the centre of it is
something we don't really understand.

You know, neuroscience
attempts to explain it,

but there's something just magical about

what happens to human beings
when music is playing or

when they're performing music that
we can't yet explain and I rather like that.

That's one of the great mysteries.

When you focus on music and you let it in,
it can be spiritual, it can be uplifting.

It can help with a lot of things.

You know, if you're depressed,
if you're grieving.

Singing is one of the,

I think is probably the only thing
that uses your mind and your body.

It uses the memory, it uses the imagination,

it uses the, you know, all the motor skills
to get the breathing going.

When you are singing it is all encompassing,

which is why it's such a
wonderful thing for mental health.

We become

one when we sing with other people.

We feel like we're part of a team.

You know, whether you're
just going into a sports match

or you're going to a
more formal music setting,

everyone needs to feel like
they're part of something bigger.

And that is what music is,
that's what singing

is so brilliant at because you just,

I don't know, you touch the infinite.

Gareth has led choirs at major events like

the Diamond Jubilee of
Queen Elizabeth the Second,

the BBC Proms, and the Invictus Games.

In 2023, he formed a choir to perform
at the Coronation of King Charles the Third.

He tutored a 300-person ensemble made up of
singers from different backgrounds –

including healthcare workers,
refugees and taxi drivers,

as well as the LGBTQ+, ethnic minority and
deaf communities – from all across Britain.

I had to sit and imagine
what it was going to be like on the day,

you know, with King Charles in front of us
and the whole royal family and

20,000 people there.

And then I've got, I can see these 300 people.

What are they going to be singing?
What's it going to be like?

You just have to build

a bubble around people,
a sort of wall of confidence.

You know, I have the confidence
that you can do this.

So you should, too.

It was an incredibly diverse group
we had on that stage.

We live in a country that has so many people
from so many different backgrounds,

and sometimes that can be problematic,

but not in a choir.

You know, it was great.

These are people who wouldn't,
whose paths would never normally cross.

And yet they stood together as one and
sang as something sort of something British.

Sobia Bashir was the soloist
in Gareth's Coronation Choir.

He discovered her singing
in a South Asian Women's choir

in Yorkshire in the north of England.

Working with Gareth was
one of the best experiences of my life,

he has this brilliant way of
bringing everyone together in the choir.

He instilled me with so much confidence

and we all had the best time.

Gareth prides himself on
helping the most unlikely of people

to sing in places where it is uncommon

but where the inspiration and unity
of choral singing is most needed.

He has formed choirs in prisons, hospitals,

schools, and Britain's busiest workplaces –

including an airport,
fire station and supermarket.

I'm interested in people
and what music can do for people

more than I am just in the sound of a choir.

Choirs are amazing for helping people.

I think the real magic of a choir
is when we're singing in harmony

and you're singing one note
and I'm singing another note,

and yet they complement each other.

I think there's something, you know,
it's a great metaphor for society,

but it also just feels good.

There's a real satisfaction when you
nail that harmony, and it's all kind of,

all the harmonics are
fizzing and it's exciting.

That's a really, really special thing.

Whenever I'm choosing songs, I always
think a lot about whether or not it has

the potential for people to
really let go and let a big sound out.

I think those are the moments
when people are kind of,

aah,

you know, this big sound coming out of you.

That's where, you know,
the breath starts to flow.

It's more demanding,
more physically demanding.

In a choir, you're singing together
and you're singing in harmony

and you're singing music that is
sort of specifically designed for that.

It's designed to be expansive
and beautiful and spiritual.

Throughout his career,

Gareth has been on a mission to
change the perception of what a choir is.

Choral music originated in the church.

Gareth is striving to find ways
to make it more accessible and relevant

in a modern, multicultural world.

Using your voice is using your voice.

And, you know,
whether it's karaoke or you're rapping

or you're singing opera
or you're in a choir,

you know, it's all the same instrument.

And if you're doing it
with other people, it feels good.

There are many secular choirs now.

You can go and join a pop choir.
You can join a jazz choir.

And it doesn't have to have
anything to do with religion.

And so I've been working
with choirs like that because,

you know, in a country where there are people
of lots of different faiths, of no faith,

I think it's an easier way in for people.

Having said that, you know,
there is so much wonderful religious music.

And you just have to say, well,
this is why this person wrote this.

They believed in their religion.
You believe in yours.

Let's look at it.
Let's examine it.

Then they will usually
be open minded to that.

Gareth was born in London,

but spent much of his childhood
in Bournemouth on the South Coast of England.

His family influenced
his love of music at an early age.

My mother and father
met doing amateur operatics.

They were in a play and
saw each other across the stage,

and they always sang when I was a kid.

I can't remember a time when I didn't sing.

And it was always a house
where you would just go,

"Oh, how's that song go?"

And then you'd all just sing it.

And there was no sort of artificial separation
between speaking and singing.

I was in the school choir for
seven years every single morning.

We sang for about 40 minutes.

That was a fantastic way to start the day.

It was just a nice place to be.

It was a kind of haven for me

as the pressures of school or
the pressures of peers and all of that,

I could get away, escape from all that
and just concentrate on music.

And I loved the challenge of it.

After first studying drama at university,

Gareth undertook a course at the
prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London

before taking his first job
in music education.

My first big job was
with the English National Opera,

and that was going into schools
and getting young people to

learn about opera.

I got so much from that job
because I could see

firsthand what this music could do.

I loved the opportunity to go and watch
these operas with these young people

and that alchemy, that moment where
they got excited about it, was so special.

Young people are awesome.

No, they don't have experience,
but they do have energy

and personality and it's wonderful watching.

And when you're working
with the arts, with young people,

you're seeing them develop themselves,

learn things about themselves, make choices
that they're making for the first time.

That's always really exciting.

Many of Gareth's choirs
have been in documentaries.

In his first series, he created a choir with
school children who had never sung before.

Cameras followed them
as Gareth helped the young choir

find their voices and build self-confidence.

The first series
you were watching somebody young

working things out for the first time.

You know, I was in tears.

I was making mistakes.

You know, I look back now and think,
oh, why did I choose that song?

Why did I do that?
Why did I make that decision?

But I think the audience liked that,
the honesty of that and the journey of that.

And in the end,

on that first series, you know,
the results were not staggering.

But what was staggering was

what the experience meant to the young people
and what it meant to me.

And I think people really
were amazed by that thought.

I don't think anyone had really considered
what choirs could do for young people.

In 2011, Gareth formed
the Military Wives Choir,

made up of wives and partners of
military personnel deployed to Afghanistan.

The aim was to help these women
express themselves through song,

but Gareth's documentary
revealed the loneliness and struggle

of military families for the first time.

The choir received enormous public support.

It sparked a charity network which now
consist of over 2000 singers across 75 choirs,

in military bases around the world.

It felt exciting to me because it was an
important story in this country at the time.

You know, everyone was talking about

whether or not we should be going
to Afghanistan and Iraq.

And no one was really talking about
the people that were left behind,

but the bodies were starting to come back.

And I suppose the choir, military wives,
was an extension of us

coming to terms with the fact that

this had a very, very real cost
for many families in this country.

I think they had no voice.

Military spouses were just
a sort of forgotten group of people.

But from day one, working with those women,
you know, they sang readily.

They were excited about it.
They needed a sense of community.

It could also do more than that,
it could also make them heard,

and I think they realised that
quite early on and they really were heard.

I'm very glad that those women
are still singing and that it's doing

what I know it can do on a weekly basis.

You know, you don't need
the glamour of television

and the excitement of performing
for the King or the Queen.

What you really need is
some people in a room with a piano

and somebody who's passionate
about music for it to work.

And that's the most important thing,

it's the sort of
grassroots weekly rehearsals.

That's the thing that does the magic.

It just makes you feel good,

if you've had a bad day,
you come and meet like-minded women,

you all sit and sing together,
you have a gossip together,

you go away and
you feel really good about yourself.

Gareth champions
the restorative power of music.

During the Covid pandemic,

he hosted choir rehearsals online
to inspire people to sing at home.

Around 250,000 people joined his first session.

You know, we did our best.

I did a choir in here and
I would sing into the camera

and people would join in and
I kind of couldn't hear any of them.

It was very tough.
But necessary.

I've had so many people
come up to me and say

that got me through
that first period of lockdown.

Because it was frightening
and it was depressing

and we needed a community
and it gave a lot of people hope.

I think music is comforting.

Music is healing.

You know, maybe not physically healing,
but emotionally healing.

It's certainly the thing
that I turn to when I'm struggling,

I'll put my headphones on
and get lost in music.

I don't understand why it is you can play
a collection of chords on a keyboard

and it has an effect on another person.

Gareth has performed internationally
with his own professional and amateur choirs.

On his current tour, he wants to inspire
more people to sing together.

From the minute
I start to the end of the night,

everyone's singing.

For me, being on stage is like,
that's my happy place.

I absolutely love it.

You know, I've got all my guitars
and keyboards and

I play and I sing and yeah,
it's just a really fun night for me

and it's a fun night
for the audience as well.

We also make up songs on the spot.

I mean, I do a lot of writing as well,

and we make up a song with the audience

every single night based on the town
that they live in.

Gareth's work to popularise choral singing
has had a huge impact in Britain.

Three of his records have hit
number one in the UK singles charts.

He continues to write,
to work with a range of musicians,

and to promote the importance of singing.

I think the picture of choirs in this country
has changed completely.

You know, it's not just me,

but having a series on television,
that's been so successful,

showing what choirs can do for people

has encouraged a lot of people
to go and join their local choir.

Anyone can join a choir now.

It doesn't have to be auditioned,
it doesn't have to be sort of fancy.

It can, anyone can do it.

Everyone can learn an instrument.
Everyone can sing in some way.

You might not be great.
You might not think you have any potential.

But everyone can get better.

Everyone can get something
from making music with other people.

The great lesson that I've learned over
the course of my career is what music can do

and how it can bring people together,
how it can unify,

how it can heal,
how it can cross great divides.

And I think that is something
we all need in our lives,

you know, whether we think
we're musical or not.

You know, I think music has amazing powers.

It is never wrong to sing a song.