Battle of the Bands - Our Lives 

Technical Replacement

BBC One Scotland

BBC One is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964. It replaced BBC Television.

BBC One

BBC 1

BBC1

Scotland

Our Lives

Documentaries

Factual

Factual: Life Stories

Celebrating life in the UK in all its diversity.

Celebrating life in the UK in all its diversity – as seen through the eyes of remarkable people doing extraordinary things.

Battle of the Bands – Our Lives

Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

BBC One HD

BBC One London

London

Simulcast of BBC One Scotland in high definition. From 14/01/2013

BBC One Scotland HD

BBC One Wales

Wales

Simulcast of BBC One Wales in high definition. From 29/01/2013

BBC One Wales HD

The BBC East region started on 1st May 1959 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One East.

BBC One East

The BBC South West region started on 20th April 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South West.

BBC One South West

BBC One Cambridgeshire

BBC One Channel Islands

The BBC South region started on 5th January 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South.

BBC One South

BBC One Oxfordshire

BBC One Yorkshire

BBC One West Midlands

BBC One region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

BBC One East Midlands

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One South East

The BBC North East & Cumbria region started in 1959 (tbc) as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One North East & Cumbria.

BBC One North East & Cumbria

BBC One North West

The BBC West region started on 1st September 1957 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One West.

BBC One West

BBC One Yorks & Lincs

Simulcast of BBC One Northern Ireland in high definition. From 24/10/2012

BBC One Northern Ireland HD

BBC Northern Ireland region started on 19th April 1955 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One Northern Ireland.

BBC One Northern Ireland

Battle of the Bands - Our Lives

Gruff Rees

Sian Price

Our Lives: Series 3: Battle of the Bands

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Battle of the Bands

Series 3

BBC One - Our Lives, Series 3, Battle of the Bands

Documentary following two brass bands as they compete in the Welsh Championships.

Documentary celebrating brass banding in Wales. It follows the Cory and Tredegar Bands as they prepare to battle it out to be crowned Welsh Champions at the national finals.

This programme has exclusive access to the Cory and Tredegar Brass Bands of South Wales based in two of the poorest communities in Britain. Very few of their players are professional musicians and most have ordinary day jobs. None of them are paid. Yet give them a trumpet, cornet, flugel or horn and these ordinary people reveal their extraordinary talents - and a jaw-dropping work ethic. This film takes us into the unique world of brass banding; a Welsh tradition taken to its dizzy heights by two astonishing bands who regularly sell out arenas across the world. Cory and Tredegar are committed, competitive and have a camaraderie that’s part and parcel of their success. And just like their instruments, each individual band member has a personal back story and reason for being there.
We follow the Cory and Tredegar Bands to the Welsh Championships and an epic brass battle in Wrexham, North Wales. Pride, passion, perseverance: it’s all in a day’s work for the brass banders. The programme delves into the history of brass banding revealing how it was forged in the fires of industry – paid for and encouraged by industrial bosses keen to keep their workers out of the pubs and on the straight and narrow. We also meet some of the individual players in the bands. Conductors Ian Porthouse (Tredegar) and Phil Harper (Cory) are the only paid members of each band. They reveal the secrets to each band’s success as the programme follows four weeks of rehearsals running up to the championships. Individual band members tell their own stories including Tim, who overcame his tearaway youth to excel at the tuba, Ian, who juggles 2 kids and day job as a head-teacher, Rob who postponed his kidney transplant to play in the competition and Leanne who found love on the brass-banding scene and is now married to the conductor.

Our Lives: Series 3

A collection of documentaries from Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Our Lives

Series 3

Battle of the Bands

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC One Scotland

About BBC One