[alli55]

“Gemma’s got a really nice singing voice!” Lissie announces, out of the blue.

“How do you know?” Maddie asks.

“She used to sing to me when I was little.”

“When was that?” I enquire.

“When she lived with us.”

“You remember that?” I ask, surprised. “You were only 3 or 4 at the time!”

“I can remember it like it was yesterday. You used to come upstairs with me and get me ready for bed. And then, after you’d tucked me in and gone back downstairs, Gemma used to come into my room and sing lullabies to me.”

“Did she?” I say, belatedly angry that Gemma had kept little Lissie up later than she should.

“Yeah,” Lissie remembers, “I used to love her singing to me! She had a really nice voice, all soft and gentle. I bet she still has!”

“Her voice won’t be the same,” I warn my youngest daughter, “that was 9 years ago. Gemma’s an adult now, so her voice will have changed from when she was 10.”

“But I bet it’s still soft and gentle and lovely!” she insists. “I can’t wait to hear her sing again!”

“Welcome back to Britain’s Most Daring’s Musical Extravaganza!” beams Trixie, her dress reflecting the studio lights in a sparkling series of twinkles.

“Wor daredevils have all been given a singing dare to complete,” Joe reminds us.

“Yes,” Trixie continues, “and it’s a special group dare this week, so they’ve been divided into three groups. And, to look after each group, we’ve brought in some of our favourite Britain’s Most Daring presenters.” She looks at Joe, adding, “And I don’t mean you!”

“Thank you very much!” replies Joe. “I notice you’re not on the list, either!”

“Exactly!” Trixie remarks, leaving us uncertain what she means by that.

“After a night to think about it,” Joe says, “the following morning the groups got together for the first time. Let’s see what happened!”

Trixie introduces the next segment, “First up, the choir. Here’s Lorna to tell us more.”

Lorna is standing in a corridor, next to a door marked ‘Studio 4’. She is wearing a vibrant green silk blouse above a black knee-length skirt, and has a small yellow flower pinned into her hair.

“The other side of this door,” she informs us, “the five members of our choir are finding out what talents they each might be able to bring to this dare. Let’s go and join them!”

She opens the door and enters, leaving us to follow her in. Once through, we see Ayla, Eilidh, Gemma, Matt, and Tommy sat on plastic chairs in a vaguely semi-circle arrangement. They all look across at us, to see who is intruding on their session.

“Hi guys!” Lorna says cheerfully to them. They respond with varying degrees of energy and enthusiasm. “So,” she continues, “where are we at?”

Eilidh answers, “We’re working out what everyone can and cannae do, in terms of singing.”

“Okay,” Lorna bubbles, “and what have we discovered?”

“I think us girls should be okay, but Matt’s definitely gonnae be a probem! I’m not really sure about Tommy, he’s no giving much away!” Eilidh reveals. In the background, we see Matt smiling and agreeing.

“That sounds promising!” Lorna says, exuding positivity. “And what do we do with Matt?”

“We hav’nae got that far yet!”

As the only one of the group with experience of singing in a choir, Eilidh has assumed leadership for now, and the others seem quite happy to go along with that.

We notice that neither of the two Scots girls are wearing their makeover outfits, but Gemma still has her rainbow hairstyle. The boys, obviously, can do nothing about their radical new looks!

“Great!” Lorna enthuses again. “It sounds like it’s going really well!” They nod. “So,” she continues, “I’m here to tell you a bit more about the concert you’ll be performing in.” The five daredevils all notably lean forward in their seats, eager to hear what Lorna has to tell them. “So, there’s a very special concert on Friday evening at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall,” she tells them, “in aid of Heads Together. As I’m sure you know, Heads Together is the campaign to bring mental health issues out into the open. It is fronted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry; and William is hoping to be at the concert, along with Harry and Meghan.”

There are audible gasps from the others as the enormity of what Lorna has just said hits them: they are going to be singing in front of royalty!

“It’s not a pop concert as such,” Lorna continues. “There’s a real mix of styles, Susan Boyle is headlining, and it’s being hosted by Kevin Bridges, the comedian, I don’t know if you know him.”

“Aye,” exclaims Ayla, “he’s really good!”

“Well, anyway,” Lorna goes on, “we’ve got you a 10-minute slot in the concert, and the organisers are expecting three songs in that slot. So, now you know what you have to aim for!” Once she has finished speaking, she exits the room, leaving us to stay behind with the daredevils.

Goodness me! I can hardly believe what I’ve just seen and heard!

“You didn’t say anything about that!” Lissie says, accusingly, to Maddie.

“That’s ’cos I didn’t know!” Maddie exclaims.

“I can’t believe it!” Lissie continues.

“I know!” agrees Maddie. “Just imagine! Singing in front of William and Harry! I think I’d die of embarrassment or nerves!”

“No wonder they were rehearsing so much!” I comment.

There is a stunned silence in Studio 4 after Lorna has left. Tommy and Matt are shaking their heads in near-disbelief, whilst Gemma appears to be staring into space. Eilidh’s confident leadership has evaporated as she sits with her hands pressed against the underside of her chin. Ayla quietly looks around at the others; she is the first one to speak.

“Right, well,” she begins, “we’d better make sure we put on a damn good performance, then! Eh? What d’you say guys? Let’s show ’em what we can do!”

“Yeah,” agrees Tommy, “let’s do this!”

“Whatever it takes!” emphasises Ayla.

Back, live, in the studio, Trixie and Joe seem to be equally surprised by Lorna’s news, though, we imagine, that must simply be scripted surprise, given that the concert took place yesterday!

“Well,” states Joe, “that’s put the cat amongst the pigeons!”

“It has certainly increased the pressure on our choir to do their dare well!” Trixie agrees.

“We’ll see how they cope with that pressure a little later,” Joe informs us.

“Next, though, let’s see how the football group are getting on!” Trixie says. “Here’s Aleksandra with the low-down.”

Aleksandra is in a similar corridor to the one we saw Lorna in just now, only the door she is standing next to leads to Studio 2. As always, Aleksandra is looking stunning, with a really interesting mauve top drawing our eyes to her middle, below which she is wearing a dark micro mini-skirt. The top itself is perfectly normal until her midriff, when it becomes a series of criss-crossing strings that attach to a thin strip of material wrapped around her waist.

“Shall we see how our football-loving funsters are getting on in there?” she asks us, gesturing with her hand to the studio door. “Come with me!” she instructs, and we do.

James, Tariq, and Keenan are all stood at one end of the room, in various poses that each displays a degree of frustration. They are all looking at Shanumi, who is sitting in the middle of the room, staring back at them, with her arms folded across her chest, striking a defiant pose. We assume that she is the cause of their frustration.

“Hello, my friends!” Aleksandra greets them. They all look at her but none of them say anything. “Oh dear,” she says, “you don’t look very happy! Something is wrong, I think!” She looks enquiringly at each of them in turn, but no-one seems to want to be the first to speak.

As we wait for someone to say something, we see that Tariq has ditched his smart look from the previous night. We are also aware that Keenan is Keenan once more, and not Special K. James, though, is still wearing his hairpiece.

Aleksandra uses this to try to break the ice. She edges over to James and flirtily ruffles his hair. “I love this,” she tells him, “it feels so real!”

We see just the hint of a blush from James, as he says, “It’s a good job you do! I’m stuck with it at the moment! I tried to get the damn thing off last night, but I couldn’t shift it! God knows what Els stuck it on with!”

The others laugh at his predicament, and the tension in the room eases.

“So,” Aleksandra continues, “I have something to tell you! But you have to be nice to each other before I do! No more sulky-sulky! Is that a deal?”

Four affirmative responses are either heard or seen, so Aleksandra reveals some more details about their dare.

“On Friday, there is a little football game in something called the F. A. Cup. It is Chelsea against Aston Villa and it is at Wembley Stadium. You are going to be leading some entertainment before the game, when you must try to get the fans of each team to sing louder than the others! I think it is going to be a lot of fun!”

“Oh, man!” Tariq says quietly to himself, shaking his head.

“Be nice!” Aleksandra tells them, as she exits the studio without us.

Keenan claps his hands together twice to get everyone’s attention. “Okay,” he says, “we’ve got to sort this!”

We return to Trixie and Joe, and find them looking suitably impressed once more.

“That’s another high-pressure dare, that!” comments Joe.

“It certainly is!” Trixie concurs. “It’ll be interesting to see if they can resolve whatever problems they appear to have!”

“We’ll return later to see whether that’s possible,” Joe says.

“But, before we do,” Trixie adds, “we should drop in on our buskers! There was only person we could ask to take on this motley band: it had to be Lowri!”

We find ourselves in another identical corridor, next to a door that only differs from the previous two because of the number after the word ‘Studio’. This one has a 6 on it. Lowri is leaning against the door, holding a harmonica. She is dressed as some sort of wannabe hippy, with a flowery loose-fitting blouse and a flowing yellow-and-brown skirt. The look is completed by a garland of flowers she is wearing around her head.

“Right,” she tells us, “I’ve got the gear, so let’s do some busking, shall we?!”

She pushes the door open and gives a quick blast on the harmonica as she walks into the studio. The four daredevils look up, startled by her entrance and bemused by her appearance.

“What’s happening then, guys?” she asks them, before blowing another note on the harmonica.

Dylan, who is more used to her irrepressible nature than the others, is the only one not too stunned to answer.

“We’re just working out what we can all actually do when we go busking,” he tells her.

“Okay,” she says, “so what have we learned?”

“Well, Bradley’s got his guitar,” Dylan begins, “Mia can do all sorts of stuff, and we’re trying to persuade Jaz to sing.”

“What about you?” Lowri asks.

“I’m holding the collecting tin!” he laughs.

Lowri takes a quick look around the group, then says, “Well, Mia, I s’pose you’ll be wanting someone to play harmonica for you!”

Mia looks at her. “Can I get back to you on that?!” she says.

“Well, before you do, let me tell you a bit more about your dare,” Lowri replies. “So, you’re going to be spending four hours busking around Bristol Harbourside next Saturday morning. You have to collect as much money as you can, which we’ll then donate to Caring In Bristol, which supports homeless and vulnerable people in the city. But you’re not allowed to tell people that you’re collecting for charity, they have to think you’re keeping the money yourselves! Obviously, we want a nice big total to hand over to Caring In Bristol! So, no pressure, whatsoever!” She gives them a final, assertive blast on her harmonica and then exits, leaving us behind.

“We’ve got to make this good!” remarks Jaz.

“Yeah,” agrees Mia, “we need to make sure we are interesting enough to attract people’s attention and good enough to get them to part with their money!”

“Oh my days!” exclaims Dylan.

“Who on earth let Lowri have that harmonica?” Joe asks Trixie, when we return to them, live in the studio. “That’s like a lethal weapon in her hands!”

“Never mind the busking,” Trixie adds, “I think Mia’s got her hands full keeping Lowri under control!”

“But it’s another dare with plenty of pressure to perform,” comments Joe. “We’re playing for high stakes this week!”

“Yes, we are,” nods Trixie, before addressing the viewers at home, “so make sure you join us for more Britain’s Most Daring after the break!”

We are still coming to terms with the shock of finding out that Gemma is going to be singing in front of the young royals. Maddie is texting furiously on her phone.

“I’d love to know how the concert went!” Lissie tells us.

“Wouldn’t we all!” replies her father.