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Malone had his work cut out in Aylesbury Prison but his willingness to listen impressed these disillusioned young men
Monday, 6th January 2020, 10:01 pm
The Choir: Aylesbury Prison, BBC2, 9pm ★★★★
It is usually straightforward enough to predict the narrative arc of The Choir. Perky Gareth Malone attempts to coax a tune out of a group of unlikely singers – the staff at a branch of Sainsbury’s, say, or Royal Mail – who overcome their reticence and, after a few tears and tantrums, discover the joy of making music. Ta-dah!
Things were a bit different in the first episode of The Choir: Aylesbury Prison. Unsurprising, perhaps, given that Malone was attempting to work not with recalcitrant shelfstackers but young inmates serving anything from two years to life for crimes such as murder, manslaughter and drug dealing.
Malone the choirmaster was transformed into Malone the counsellor. “If there was one sentence that summed you up?” he asked Lewis, a young lad in prison for armed robbery. “Wrong decisions,” came the reply. James, meanwhile, who is serving time for dealing Class A drugs, said that he had “put my Mum through a lot of pain”. Malone just listened.
He also had the good sense not to try and force a certain style of music on this ragtag choir (in six weeks, Malone had only managed to recruit four inmates). It’s fair to say that Handel’s Messiah has been shelved for the time being. Instead, Malone allowed the men to write a rap.
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The music was an afterthought, though. This two-part series, which concludes tonight, is about allowing disillusioned young men to speak. It was striking how quickly the aggressive masks slipped when somebody actually bothered to listen to these prisoners.
“I can’t remember the last time I did something good,” said Dwayne after recording a few bars. All the obbligatos in the world could hardly have drawn a bigger smile from Malone.
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