As The Piano makes a swift return, hosts Claudia Winkleman, Mika and Lang Lang reveal the secrets of the show’s success. No glitz, no make-up, no pathos, it’s all about the music…
Welcome to Banter Central – a photographic studio in west London, where Claudia Winkleman and Mika are recovering from throwing shapes under strobe-esque lighting against a dazzling backdrop of blackand-white 1960s Op Art à la Bridget Riley.
There are a few serious moments but mostly it’s wise-cracking verbal ping-pong. Claudia, peering out from under what she calls her “Unapologetic Fringe”, is munching through two bags of crisps and a packet of mini-Oreos, for which she apologises quite often. Then, witnessing my faffing with tape recorders while dealing poorly with a cup of tea (lack of spoon, saucer and so on) as Mika is talking, she quietly slips it away and dispatches the damp tea bag in what I suspect is a characteristically kind and unobtrusive intervention.
These are two of the three faces (I meet Lang Lang later in the week) of what is surely the most joy-f illed television series of recent times: The Piano, the Channel 4 gem that went out early last year following a most unusual music competition between amateur piano players invited to perform on public pianos at major train station across the length of the country, from London’s St Pancras to Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow.
The participants – of all ages and from all backgrounds, with the most tremendous back-stories, playing every genre of music from classical to pop and rap – were under the impression that they were being filmed for some kind of documentary presented by Claudia.
Unbeknownst to them, the world’s leading classical piano player, Lang Lang, was hidden away in a small room, usually next to the public toilet, alongside the beguiling performer and pop star Mika. Both men were judging their performances with a view to selecting one pianist from each location to appear in a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, where an overall winner would be announced.
Last year this was stand-out star, blind 13-year-old Lucy Illingworth from West Yorkshire, who is unable to communicate in conventional ways because of her autism and other conditions. Her transformation when she started playing the piano (Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat Minor) with such tenderness and artistry was deeply affecting, moving viewers at home and in the station to tears, including the judges.
The first series had the highest ratings for the channel since 2017, with three million viewers, and in July last year it was announced that the show had been recommissioned for both a second and third season, as wel
