This August the BBC landed at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a brand new venue bringing a mix of music and comedy to the site on Potterrow. We at the BBC Performing Arts Fund decided to mark the occasion with our very own Flash Choir with a TV comedy twist!

The idea behind the choir was to bring together lots of keen members of the general public to rehearse a new medley of iconic BBC TV theme tunes and then perform all that they have learnt live at the Potterrow site! West End Musical Director Mark Warman arranged a piece especially for the festival that combined theme tunes from…



Dr Who

The Archers

Dad's Army (Who Do You Think)

Black Adder

New Tricks (It's Alright, it's OK)

In With the Flynns

One Foot in the Grave

The Goodies (Goodie Goodie Yum Yum)

The Royle Family (Half the World Away)

Vicar of Dibley (The Lord Is My Shepherd)

Not Going Out

Eastenders

Blue Peter

Only Fools and Horses (Hooky Street)

Morecombe and Wise (Bring Me Sunshine)



… and the result was as audibly exciting as you can imagine!



At midday on Friday we were joined by 38 willing members of the public for a two hour workshop to learn and rehearse the piece. A huge amount of concentration, patience, and determination went into getting ready for the performance in that short space of time. But with encouragement from Mark, and piano accompaniment from past BBC Performing Arts Fund grant winner Tom Brady, two hours went a long way!



Meanwhile, unbeknown to us, the Edinburgh weather outside was taking a turn for the worst and we were presented with news that there was a full on thunder storm taking place at the Potterrow site. Unwavered, the newly formed TV Comedy Flash Choir rounded up their brollies and set off for the BBC tents.



When we arrived the site was filled with people waiting for the Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis talk on the making of Life's Too Short to start, so it was quite a picture when our unannounced purple clad choir arrived!



We started with the nation’s favourite, the Dr Who theme tune, and received instant attention and curiosity. By the time we were into Dad’s Army the audience were joining in and having fun guessing the theme tunes. At the point where the choir goes from the Eastenders' drums into a Blue Peter whistle (it’s harder than you think) it sounds as though the piece is coming to a close but no! A quick blast of beat boxing then started off down Hooky Street along with an enjoyable attempt at a Cockney accent.



A seamless ending brought us to Bring me Sunshine and a lot of smiles. Although the sun hadn’t actually managed to peek through, the rain had stopped – a TV Comedy Flash Choir victory!



One participant described the afternoon as “fabulous fun”. We couldn’t agree more, so thank you to Mark Warman, Tom Brady, Robert Seatter, Annabelle Davies and all our choir stars!