All the Small Things

What a refreshing change - no doctor or detective in sight but a heartwarming programme about a choir master (Neil Pearson) going through a mid-life crisis who dumps his loyal wife (Sarah Lancashire) and teenage children (one of whom has mental health problems) for a beautiful new choir member.

He told his wife it was for her own good as she needed to make something of her life - which is just what she did, setting up a rival choir which didn't judge people but was all-inclusive, unlike the old choir which went from being happy and friendly to back-biting, throwing out those who were not good enough to join - and I'm not necessarily talking about their singing ability. Enter the attractive new curate and some good harmony, and you have competition between the choirs and the two lead men for the newly confident wife.

Great entertainment with strong characters and a chance to develop in future series.

Utter tripe TV series from UK BBC service. The acting is okay though the characters are dull, cumbersome and entirely irritating (like the sweetcorn in your teeth that you can't get out). The main characters' son is obsessed with the lead singer of American band Blink 182 (hence the title 'All the Small Things'). This means that we have endless renditions of this song - even at a choral contest where the lad singing this to rock guitars wins the contest (as a choir?!) against serious vocal harmony choirs (okay, yes some of the cast are humming vocals in the background but that does not a choir make). There is a bunch of malicious Christians (terribly scapegoat here, Christians that is), a vulnerable, mentally challenged man (who is also the show's only real ethic minority character (seriously!?!), siblings who act like more like school peers that fancy each other and don't know where to go next, motherly mentality (yet unfit mothers they are), rubbish script...and of course Tom - the lead singer of Blink 182. He is not in it but I'm sure he must have paid the BBC a great amount of money to make the show. I don't mind Blink 182, Tom has a good voice. However a prime time show (watched mainly - I imagine - by people who read 'The Daily Mail' or 'The Sun' - UK's best selling tabloid newspapers) with endless Wikipedia style snippets about Tom's life is at least bizarre and at worst (especially for a publicly funded, non-advertising broadcaster) completely ridiculous. All this show is good for is as a pointless, dumb and ill founded criticism of Christianity and an advertisement for the recent "let's hang out together again and maybe release an album" standing of Blink 182. Poor.

As a long-term member of a choral society, when I read about this series I thought "Great, a drama about a choir," but I was disappointed.

I quite liked some of the characters and situations, but some aspects were absurd. I know not all Anglican churches have traditional robed choirs, but this purported "church choir" was NEVER seen to prepare any music for a service! Other aspects of English parish church life were also totally unrealistic, such as a "committee" (should be "Parochial Church Council") that met without the Vicar being present. Why don't writers research their backgrounds properly?

WARNING MAY CONTAIN Spoilers, I think.

After watching two episodes of this, I'm hooked. Yes, it can be a bit predictable. I mean, from the first scene between Bryan Dick's character, Jake and Sarah Lancashire's character, Esther you just know that by the end of the series they'll get together. And it's a little obvious after episode 2 that Richard Fleeshman's character Kyle will end up with Drummer Grace, although that could just be me. But just look at the look they were giving each other while they were performing Swing Swing and you might just agree with me. And something else that could just be me but might not be is the obvious fact that Jake has a dark past that'll come out somewhere near the end of the series, which I'm guessing will be that he has a life and/or something to do with his friend's death. And all of it has something to do with Sarah Alexander's character, Layla. I'm guessing she split up Jake and his wife.

But none of that really matters. For me, it's all about the music (and Bryan Dick because he's fit!). All American Reject's Swing Swing is one of my fave songs, and this show has only made me love it more. I'm even finding myself liking Blink 182's All The Small Things. There has got to be an album with all the cast's versions of the songs from this series on it. I'll buy it! Only four more episodes to go and I hope the music just gets getting better!

This as a Fantastic program and absolutely lovely singing from the cast. It has class and is genuine family viewing. Even though it has been repeated 3 or more times in Malta I am still gripped. Are all those voices genuine? I know Sarah Lancashire has a lovely voice but I can't help thinking that that awful creature coming to muscle in on the choir is really a soprano. I am sure she is miming. Someone with such wicked eyes should not have such a beautiful voice. I wish a soundtrack album of the program could be released! Top class entertainment. All the characters are believable even though they are well known from other long running popular series but have not suffered from 'typecasting' Well done all!!