All together now!
The NHS choir, staff and music stars unite for a record-breaking singalong...
Factual
The Big NHS Singalong Live
Wednesday, 9pm
Get those vocal chords ready as the NHS Choir, medical staff across the UK and a sprinkling of pop stars unite for a live, recordbreaking attempt to celebrate the NHS’s 70th birthday!
They will come together to try to smash the record for the biggest-ever broadcast singalong, as they perform the iconic Beatles classic With A Little Help From My Friends, live from the Abbey Road Studios, where the original track was recorded.
Dancer Ashley Banjo and presenter and DJ Sara Cox will be following the build up to the performance in a special 90-minute programme and will be meeting up with some of the extraordinary patients and staff taking part.
High flyers
‘The NHS has touched everyone,’ says Ashley. ‘I don’t know anyone who hasn’t leant on it at some point in their lives. When my little sister was born she was in hospital for the first six months of her life, and she’s only here today because of the incredible hard work of doctors and nurses.’
Started by staff from the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS in south-east London, the original NHS Choir enjoyed a Christmas hit with their version of A Bridge Over You in 2015.
‘The NHS choir has achieved a No.1, beaten Justin Bieber and done the impossible,’ says Ashley. ‘Now they want to take it to the next level.’
With popstars Kimberley Walsh from Girls Aloud, JLS frontman Aston Merrygold and Saturdays singer Una Healy already on board, the race is on to recruit more celebrities as well as NHS employees for the live fundraising singalong.
‘We’re going to be travelling the length and breadth of the UK,’ adds
Sara. ‘We really want to celebrate this fabulous institution that we’re so lucky to have and get the whole nation singing!’