A question of faith

When pop star Tom Parker died from cancer in 2022, his good friend and bandmate Jay McGuiness found himself overwhelmed with grief and questioning his belief system.

- WORDS: LAURA CARRENO-MULLER

Now in Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps, Jay embarks on a search for answers. But what begins as a trek across breathtaking mountain landscapes soon transforms into something far deeper. "I cried more than I've ever cried," says Jay.

Beginning on Easter Sunday, the three-part show brings together seven well-known faces from different backgrounds, with a range of beliefs and perspectives.

Joining Jay are presenter Jeff Brazier, actress and comedian Helen Lederer, The Traitors winner Harry Clark, comedian Daliso Chaponda, Paralympic athlete Stefanie Reid and journalist Nelufar Hedayat. Together, they walked nearly 300 kilometres from Austria to the sacred abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland, carving their way through the awe-inspiring but gruelling terrain of the Austrian and Swiss Alps.

The goal? To explore faith, question identity and, maybe, find some sense of clarity and even friendship along the way.

But for Jay, 34, the experience began with a huge weight already pressing on his heart. "I had a lot of anticipatory nerves before the show," he says. "I knew I'd talk about Tom Parker at some point during filming."

Tom wasn't just a bandmate - Jay has previously described how he was like a brother. The pair first soared to stardom together in 2009 as part of the chart-topping boyband The Wanted alongside Max George, Siva Kaneswaran and Nathan Sykes.

The group took a hiatus in 2014 and, while their lives moved in different directions, the bond between them stayed strong. But everything changed in October 2020 when Tom was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive brain cancer.