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Gareth Malone has a bad feeling about Birmingham City Council. Quite apart from characterising council workers as ‘performing very important tasks, a little bit joylessly’, he discovers that the council is in the throes of crippling, coalition-imposed cuts. Who knows whether his choir members will even be working at BCC by the time the performance comes around?
During the auditions of everyone from trampoline coaches to gravediggers, his pessimism deepens even as his sympathy for them grows. As singers, his 22-strong collective seem undisciplined and unwilling to take it seriously, but who could deny them some light relief in such grim times?
Anyone familiar with the show will anticipate an uplifting turnaround, which duly comes to pass. But being heartwarming without being cheesy is no easy feat – Malone’s agreeably spiky persona lends an edge to proceedings, while the travails of the staff ensure that the real world isn’t held at arms’ length for long. The choice of song – the hackneyed cliché of ‘The Only Way is Up’, recast as a torch song – proves utterly inspired; it all adds up to another rigorous workout for the tear ducts.