Surely the world’s most affable gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, who shares his musical enthusiasms on his weekly Classic FM show, has hit the top spot in the UK official classical artist albums chart in the run-up to Christmas. Jack Frost: A Winter Story (Silva Screen) is a charming, chilly and melodic seasonal tale that Titchmarsh has written and narrates in his second collaboration with the composer Debbie Wiseman, whose credits include the music for BBC TV’s Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
Skim the rest of the classical chart and a theme appears: Christmas at King’s; Best Loved Christmas Carols; Carols from Cambridge: The Very Best; Carols from King’s College Cambridge. Many of these compilations are directed by David Willcocks. He died in 2015 aged 95, but his arrangements are immortal. This pure-voiced choir of men and boy angels and its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (live on Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on Christmas Eve at 3pm/on BBC Two, 6pm) remains the traditional favourite. Whichever album you select, quality will be of the highest.
