Claudia Winkleman has promised viewers to expect to see "phenomenal" talent in her new Channel 4 series The Piano.
In the show, which begins next week, amateur pianists from across the UK are filmed performing on public pianos in train stations as crowds of commuters watch on.
Unbeknownst to the pianists, also watching on are musician Mika and leading Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who will select a handful of impressive amateurs to play a gig at the Royal Albert Hall.
"It's a very gentle and, I hope, charming show about people's love for this instrument," said Winkleman, who hosts the series.
"The star of everything is the piano. Public pianos were set up before COVID. I remember walking through stations and you would see people playing.
"There are communities of people who play street pianos and we invited them to come and play in four stations. There's a magic about stations anyway, I've always felt. I've been, often, my happiest in a station. I'm a massive advocate for the tube – I don't know where I'd be without the Central Line – but also big train stations.
"People are waiting to meet somebody they love. People are going off on holiday. People are late. There are kids crying, like mine used to, because they want a bag of chips. There are love affairs just beginning. All of life is happening at train stations."
Speaking about the amateur pianists, she continued: "We had every kind of person. We had somebody who was eight and somebody who was 94. We had people who liked playing Elton John and people who liked playing their own compositions.
"We had somebody who had been having lessons for eight years and somebody who had taught themselves quite recently. It was a perfect balance.
"There are people who've been classically trained, but lots taught themselves in lockdown. We didn't realise. So many people who played our piano were like, 'In the second lockdown, I just thought I might learn something...' Phenomenal. I didn't even learn how to make butternut squash, so you know, well done."
The Piano begins on Wednesday, February 15 at 9pm on Channel 4.
Neil Wilkes
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