Passion project

Gareth Malone is facing one of the biggest challenges of his career as he brings together eight amateur singers for a performance of Bach’s St John Passion to mark the 300th anniversary of the 1724 oratorio, which tells the story of the Crucifixion.

- CAREN CLARK, HANNAH DAVIES, IAN MACEWAN

BBC1’s two-part documentary Gareth Malone’s Easter Passion follows the choirmaster and presenter over two months as he selects his vocalists and introduces them to the choral masterpiece, which he has always loved.

‘I’ve been obsessed with Bach since A level. When I studied singing, I sang the narrator role of the Evangelist in St John, and loved it,’ reveals Malone, 48.

‘The Easter story deals with big questions in life. We all have struggles and experience pain, and St John is a moving telling of that. It was a game changer when it was written, and it still has power.’