Michael Ball has good reason to remember the first time he presented the BBC’s Proms In The Park. As he stepped on stage in front of 45,000 people, with millions more listening at home, to link to the Albert Hall for the finale, a producer told him there was a bit of a delay.
‘I had nothing planned,’ the star recalls. ‘I am not a comedian with material at my fingertips. So I go out there thinking it’s going to be a couple of minutes at most and I’m looking at someone in the wings saying, “Michael, you’ve got 11 minutes to fill.” ’
Ball decided to tell the audience his favourite dinner-party story about one of the Three Tenors singing the song Memory from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. It ends with the line: ‘If you touch me, you’ll understand what happiness is…’
Michael Ball has just finished a run at the London Coliseum, where he starred in a revival of Chess, and this month he’s making guest appearances at concerts around the country
‘Except, with his pronunciation, he was singing, “If you touch me you understand what ‘a-penis’ is…” Basically, I just said the word penis on stage.’ The place erupted with laughter. ‘Then I thought, Now what do I do? How do I follow that?
‘Basically this being the Proms, you top it with a singalong. Who was back in the charts? Vera Lynn! What does everyone want? We’ll Meet Again. I had whole place singing. I was very proud of myself.’
That was in 2016. No wonder they have invited him back for the third successive year to host Proms In The Park, filling the very big boots of the late Sir Terry Wogan, who presented it from 1997 until 2015.
It’s a gig Ball loves and believes plays a huge part in Britain’s national identity.
‘The Last Night Of The Proms is one of those moments in the British calendar, along with Wimbledon, the Grand National and the Queen’s Speech,’ he says. ‘It is great to be part of that. I love tradition and ceremony, and acknowledging the past as we look forward. There is still, rightly, a huge pride in the history of our country and that is down to education by parents, by schools and also by the generations talking. The Proms are a launchpad for that conversation, for one generation to say to another, this is our history, this is why you have what you have in the world.’
Michael Ball performing at Manchester Apollo. Far from being exhausted by his hectic schedule, he’s in the best shape of his life
He doesn’t for a moment think the Proms deserve their occasional label as elitist.
‘Music is a universal language – it breaks down every barrier, it touches everybody’s life, it has an effect on everyone,’ he says. ‘People can come together and forget politics, forget religion, forget gender, all of those issues because what the Proms really are is an investment in music. And the Proms In The Park, that sea of faces, the BBC orchestra, the twilight – that’s where the magic happens.’
Ball has just finished a run at the London Coliseum, where he starred in a revival of Chess, and this month he’s making guest appearances at concerts around the country with classical crossover group Il Divo. He’s also still collaborating with Alfie Boe, with whom he has made two bestselling albums. But far from being exhausted by his hectic schedule, he’s in the best shape of his life, having almost given up drinking, quitting cigarettes and sugar, and putting his diet in the hands of nutritionist Amelia Freer. She is the former PA to Prince Charles whose other clients include Boy George and James Corden. ‘Throughout Chess I didn’t bother with alcohol, and even now when I’m not in a show, when usually 6pm is wine o’clock, I just don’t. I watch what I eat and work out in the gym two or three times a week.’ If he allows himself a glass of something it will be a single glass of red wine. ‘That’s my guilty pleasure,’ he reveals. ‘Give me a cheeseboard with it and I’ll see you in heaven.’
Michael Ball presents Proms In The Park on September 8 live from Hyde Park. It will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2, while highlights will be shown during the interval of the Last Night Of The Proms on BBC2. bbc.co.uk
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