The University of Nottingham is set to feature in Our Dementia Choir, a new two-part series presented by BAFTA-award winning actress Vicky McClure.

Over the course of three months, the Line of Duty actress joined forces with the University of Nottingham and the UK’s leading scientists as she discovered the physical and emotional effects of music on the brain while meeting people with dementia and their families as she created a choir of people living with the condition.

Vicky has close personal experience of dementia, through caring for her Nana Iris, who died in 2015. During that period, and through her role with the Alzheimer’s Society, Vicky has seen first-hand how music and singing had affected dementia patients and those who love and care for them.

Now, she aims to spread the word on a much bigger scale. In this series she meets the scientists exploring pioneering techniques and cutting edge scanning technology in order to reveal how music can stimulate a brain damaged by dementia. And, bringing her choir together, they’ll put on the biggest show of their lives with the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy in our understanding of how music therapy can help people with dementia.

In the programme choir members are kitted out with special wrist sensors that measure key changes to their bodies during each rehearsal, providing data to review at the end of the choir project, but also to contribute to a wider three year study by Prof Seb Crutch from the University College London.

Read more about this story on the Newsroom Blog.

Update (14 May 2018): Choir rehearsals have continued at the University following the documentary with a fundraising appeal set up to provide weekly singing lessons for members.

The target is to raise £6,000 to enable the group to continue for the next twelve months. Click here to donate to the Music and Memory Dementia Choir’s JustGiving page.