Line of Duty star’s choir to inspire!
Actress brings together singers aged 31 to 87 ... all living with dementia
AT first glance they look like any other choir passionately joining their voices in song.
But these singers are all living with dementia and many struggle to speak and perform basic tasks.
They feature in a two-part documentary with Line Of Duty star Vicky McClure, 35, exploring how music can ease the condition.
The 20 singers – aged between 31 and 87 – were brought together by the actress after the heartbreak of losing her grandmother Iris to the condition in 2015.
The documentary follows them as they practise for three months before perform- ing for 2,000 people at the Royal Concert Hall in Miss McClure’s home town of Nottingham.
One of those taking part is father- of-two Daniel Bradbury, who at 31 has only a few years to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s.
During the documentary, he and his wife Jordan are treated to a wedding party by Miss McClure and the choir who perform a moving rendition of Ben E King’s Stand By Me. Mr Bradbury, who was diagnosed just after his twins’ first birthday, said: ‘It’s difficult day to day. Certain things happen every day – me forgetting what I’ve done, and also what I have to do.’
The former drummer had to give up music as well as his engineering career after being diagnosed with the same condition that killed his father aged 36.
He now hopes to take part in any research that could help with treatment or a cure. The choir also learnt the Beatles’ hit In My Life, which Miss McClure explained has a special meaning for her after losing her grandmother.
It was the same for the wife of one singer. Reduced to tears, she said: ‘It’s too close to home.’
Miss McClure, who believes music can transform the lives of those living with dementia, said: ‘My nana was very bold, bright. She had a cracking sense of humour, a very dirty laugh. The dementia stripped all that. It leaves the shell of you.
‘Sadly she declined quite quickly but we always had a laugh. You’ve got to get through it somehow and that’s how we got through it.
‘Every now and then she’d laugh with us. Whether or not she was laughing about the same thing, I don’t know.’
The Bafta- winning actress admitted she fears that she and her mother will be struck down with the same condition ‘since it seems to run in the family… but I can’t live my life between now and whenever worrying about it’.
She insisted she did not want to take a genetic test to determine if she has an increased risk of dementia. ‘You have got to live your life and enjoy every day,’ she said.
The documentary shows the singers training with choral director Mark De-Lisser, performing hits such as Build Me up Buttercup by the Foundations.
They are also joined by singers from the Kingdom Choir who performed Stand By Me at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last year.
Although members of the choir experience improvements during the documentary, Miss McClure said their deterioration since filming is ‘frightening’.
She added: ‘There have of course been changes in people since we filmed. Some are in homes now and they are all deteriorating, rapidly for some.
‘I can tell when people recognise who I am and when they’re just being polite. It’s horrible.’
Our Dementia Choir with Vicky McClure is on BBC1 on May 2.