This might be slightly irrational, but Gareth Malone is really getting on my nerves. You might have noticed that the Invictus Games are currently on in Florida. It is an Olympic-style sporting event for wounded service people, set up in 2014. To be honest I’m not sure what to make of it: it reeks a little of deifying wounded soldiers, trying to cast them in the same light as olympic and paralympic athletes; sort of like the gladiator-worship of Rome. On the other hand, if it helps in their recovery and rehabilitation, who am I to criticise it?

However, the thing that has me particularly irritated about it is ‘Gareth’s Invictus Choir’. Not ‘Gareth Malone’s Invictus Choir’ or ‘The Invictus Choir’, but ‘Gareth’s Invictus Choir’, as if he thinks we should all automatically recognise who he is. This is a show where Malone goes around creating a choir of wounded service people to sing at the Invictus ceremonies. Now, that sounds rather familiar! Charles Hazlewood did near enough exactly the same thing in 2012 with the Paraorchestra, so it strikes me that Malone has stolen the idea in a way. Both projects concern the gathering of people with disabilities into a musical group, who then go on to perform at a ceremony. Unlike Hazelwood, however, Malone seems to want us all to look at him, and say how great he is for working with the service people to overcome the trauma of combat, rather than at the singers. Indeed, much of the show concerns Malone teaching choir members to sing. Almost every shot in the show was of Malone or included him, giving the impression that Malone is the star of the show and originator of the entire concept. Nowhere as far as I could tell was the Paraorchestra referenced, yet the concept is almost identical. Moreover, whereas in the documentary on the Paraorchestra, the contributions from Hazlewood focussed on the participating musicians, in this, Malone focusses on himself and how the process is effecting him, as if he wants to use the show to boost his profile rather than the singers’. Sorry, but such egoism is nauseating. They could at least allude to the Paraorchestra, or say they took their cue from it. But no: Malone obviously wants the concept to be presented as entirely his own, as if he wants us all to say how great he is. Of course it’s great such a group has been set up; I just wish malone would recognise what others have already done rather than try to take credit for a concept he essentially stole, and that he would not blatantly use the talents of disabled people as a means of boosting his public profile.