ROLAND WHITE reviews last night’s TV
ROLAND WHITE reviews last night’s TV: Anyone Can Sing? This lot probably think sopranos are Mafia mobsters
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Anyone Can Sing
Matt Baker: Travels With Mum And Dad
Do you remember the comedy sketch with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse in which Lance the butcher’s boy (Whitehouse) struggles to hold a note from a pop song, and then suddenly bursts into a pitch-perfect rendition of an aria from The Barber Of Seville?
That’s pretty much the plot of Anyone Can Sing (Sky Arts).
Three voice coaches from the English National Opera are teaching six people whose voices are, well, let’s just say they probably think sopranos are Mafia mobsters.
After three months, the pupils must be good enough to perform on stage at the London Coliseum before a packed house of 2,500 people. They will be accompanied by the English National Opera orchestra and chorus.
No pressure then.
Three voice coaches from the English National Opera are teaching six people whose voices are, well, let’s just say they probably think sopranos are Mafia mobsters
It is one of life’s little cruelties that bad singing is reliably entertaining — that’s why karaoke was invented. But Anyone Can Sing was by turns hilarious and heartwarming.
Luke, one of the six singers, is 29 and has been suffering from Tourette’s syndrome since his mid-20s. He twitches and whistles and stutters his way through conversation, but the symptoms disappear when he sings.
To the untrained ear, he has rather a good voice. But he wants an even better one so he can sing to his bride on their wedding day.
When he auditioned, the three voice coaches were dewy-eyed.
There were more tears when we met Shirley, who at 65 is feeling very old and frail. She struggles to walk without a stick.
After three months, the pupils must be good enough to perform on stage at the London Coliseum before a packed house of 2,500 people. They will be accompanied by the English National Opera orchestra and chorus. No pressure then
Yet singing coach Sarah Pring identified straight away that Shirley’s problem wasn’t age, but posture. Teaching her to stand properly will help with both her balance and her singing.
‘I’m not going to be an old lady,’ said Shirley. ‘I am going to be Diva Shirley.’
When she strode confidently out of her first lesson and accidentally forgot her stick, I didn’t know whether to laugh or applaud.
There was a brief moment in Matt Baker: Travels With Mum And Dad (More4) when it felt as if we were watching All Creatures Great And Small.
A pleasant young man (Matt) was driving an Armstrong Siddeley through a picturesque village in the North. There was a farmer in a flat cap (Matt’s dad) in the passenger seat. All it needed was a dog in the back and we’d have had the full Mr ‘Erriot.
We’ve seen Matt and his family before, on their County Durham farm in Our Farm In The Dales, and now they’re taking a series of day trips around the North-East of England, starting with Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast.
They are day trips because the Bakers can’t really leave the farm for longer periods. For reasons that were not entirely clear to me, they are also towing a refurbished caravan. This was the television equivalent of easy listening. Matt and his parents were affable company, the scenery was nice, and we even learned a thing or two.
Did you know how to clean valuable 18th-century porcelain, of which Bamburgh has 1,600 examples?
Apparently you brush the pieces from top to bottom with horse hair, remembering first to remove the horse.
So there you have it.
How many other travel shows give you handy tips on doing the housework?
History lesson of the night: Putin, Russia And The West (BBC4) recalled how President Putin outflanked hardliners in the Kremlin to offer help to the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks — even supporting the Americans in Afghanistan. To misquote the old adage, isn’t 21 years a long time in international politics?
