Strictly host Claudia Winkleman’s love affair with Scotland continues – with the presenter declaring she’d love to get married in Glasgow Central.
The 51-year-old fell in love with the Highlands while filming The Traitors at Adross Castle near Inverness and her head has been turned again – this time by Glasgow’s biggest train station.
Last August she filmed a new Channel 4 series, The Piano, which finds the UK’s best amateur piano players, with the best playing a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
When Claudia came back north she was bowled over. She said: “Glasgow train station is so beautiful. I just felt: ‘Why didn’t I know about this? I would like to get married here’”.
While Claudia married Kris Thykier, father to her three kids, in London in 2000, renewing her wedding vows isn’t out of the question. Admitting she’s a romantic, she joked: “I mean, not with my husband, obviously. But there is something lovely about stations because they’re thoroughfares.
“People are waiting to meet somebody they love. People are going 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.”
The new Channel 4 contest, which starts next week, has been dubbed “Bake Off for pianos”.
Love Productions, which makes The Great British Bake Off, tapped into the “street piano” phenomenon, where the instrument is left in stations for people to stop and play.
Claudia, pretending to be fronting a documentary, invited gifted amateurs to perform at four of the UK’s busiest stations – Glasgow Central, London St Pancras, Birmingham New Street and Leeds. What they don’t know is the show is actually a competition.
They are secretly being judged by classical virtuoso Lang Lang and Grace Kelly singer Mika. They select the best to play in the concert finale in London.
Claudia was sold as soon as she knew she was off to Scotland and in the five-parts of The Piano, 20 amateur pianists perform at each of the stations. Scotland showed its strength.
Claudia said: “I loved Sue, who played boogie-woogie in Glasgow. She was absolutely amazing.
“I loved George in Glasgow. He was 94 and combats loneliness by going to play the public piano.”
Claudia, who as well as Strictly, The Traitors and C4 quiz One Question, has a Saturday morning show on Radio 2, is also mum to Jake, 19, Matilda, 16, and Arthur, 11.
But she admitted she hasn’t a musical bone in her body.
She said: “I can’t eat with chopsticks, let alone play it. I’m redundant as a musician. I can’t spell chord.
“I tried to learn the trumpet as a kid and it lasted about four minutes. I couldn’t get a note out.”
And don’t get her to pick between The Traitors, which the BBC will soon confirm will be back for a second series, or the wholesome The Piano or Strictly.
She grinned and said: “It turns out I like both good and evil. Don’t make me pick. It’d be like choosing between cheese and chocolate.”
Contestants on The Piano range from nine to 94 in age, playing classical to honky-tonk. There are also moments of wonderful TV like Lucy, a child who was born with cancerous tumours of the eyes. She sat down at the piano and played Schubert.
Claudia said: “There were moments your goosebumps had goosebumps.
“There was a guy called Jared, a truck mechanic, who taught himself from YouTube. He played honky-tonk for 10 minutes and the station exploded. Then, he said: ‘Thanks so much. Gotta go and fix some trucks now…’”
Across the stations players included a funeral director worker who played Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, a Tori Amos drag act, a couple who played together and a boy playing his dad’s 90s dance hits.
Watching were judges Mika, who co-hosted last year’s Eurovision, and Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist seen as one of the greatest of this age.
Shooting a show in a station had its challenges. Claudia said: “Tannoy announcements would interrupt performances. A couple had an argument which I tried to solve but actually made worse.”
Mika and Lang Lang chose four pianists to perform at the Royal Festival Hall in front of 2500 people. But all the pianists from each of the four stations who played were also invited, and their friends and family.
Sadly Claudia thinks there can only be one series. She admitted: “The minute you put a piano anywhere, somebody will go, ‘Oi, where’s Mika?’
“It has to be a lovely one-off. That’s a joy in itself.”
● The Piano starts on Wednesday on Channel 4 at 9pm.
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