Kym Marsh heads ITV opera show line-up
Coronation Street star Kym Marsh is among the eight celebrities taking part in a new ITV show in which pop stars learn to sing opera. The former Hear'Say singer will join the likes of Blur member Alex James, Pop Idol runner-up Darius Danesh and Shakespeare's Sister singer Marcella Detroit in Popstar To Operastar. Bernie Nolan, 70s pop legend Jimmy Osmond, Saturdays singer Vanessa White and McFly's Danny Jones complete the line-up for the show. The artists will be trained during the course of the series to perform world-famous opera songs, mentored by Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins and renowned tenor Rolando Villazon. And their efforts will be judged by Classic FM DJ Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen along with veteran rocker Meat Loaf. "Thanks to Paul Potts, Rhydian and Il Divo, classical music is at the top of the charts," a show insider said. "But can just anyone turn into a tremendous tenor or stunning soprano?" Myleene Klass and Alan Titchmarsh will host the show, which begins on ITV1 on January 15.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.