- I've never stood in the tailwind of a jet engine,

but I'm guessing it feels a bit like that,

you get this blast of energy (laughing)

and astonishing power behind you

and it feels like you're being propelled

or lifted up on some, like on a jet,

you're being lifted off the ground by it,

it's quite an extraordinary sensation

to have such powerful, beautiful voices behind you,

supporting you, in my case, during a narration.

I mean, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir of course

has been in the vocabulary, if you like

or on one's radar for as long as I can remember

and I now feel, I hope I'm not being too presumptuous,

I now feel part of the family, it's great.

I think anyone who fails to be overawed,

when they first step out onto the stage

of the Conference Center is a big fibber, as we say,

there's a word we have in Britain, gobsmacked,

your gob being your mouth and the smack presumably being,

I can't believe what I'm looking at,

so I was gobsmacked at the sheer scale of it.

But what seemed like a sort of terrifying, scary monster

has actually become quite an intimate friend,

you realize very quickly that it's designed

and constructed in such a way,

that you can reach out to every corner of the house

and feel connected to them.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for that warm welcome

and what a spectacular drawing room you have here.

(audience laughing)

I've known some grand houses in my time,

but this place makes Downton Abbey look like a tool shed.

(audience laughing)

I suppose the main thing

that I think audiences need to be let in on

is that I don't have a Labrador dog

and I don't have a huge castle or a huge team of servants,

much as that would probably be quite enjoyable.

I'm very lucky to live in the countryside

in the south of England,

about an hour and a half south of London

and it's a great place, where I love hiking,

I love walking my dogs up there,

I run up on the Downs a fair bit

and you really can see the tapestry of England

laid out beneath you up on the heights

and that's where I'm probably to be found

probably once or twice a week.

Obviously Thanksgiving is the big tradition in America,

but in England, it's really Christmas time,

that is the family get together,

I'm very blessed that my family tend to live quite close by,

so we can visit and it's all lovely and friendly

and there isn't time for temperatures to rise,

apart from in the kitchen

and I am a disaster in the kitchen,

so I restrict my contribution to shucking oysters.

But my mother-in-law is the great one for tradition,

in terms of what we call the Christmas pudding,

which is a sort of suety, stodgy, cakey affair,

that is served after the Christmas turkey,

which we traditionally have.

Within this Christmas pudding is usually concealed

little trinkets like the size of a dime,

in the olden days it was a sixpence

or a thrupenny bit, it led to quite a few broken teeth

and swallowed thrupences over the years as well.

♪ The most wonderful time of the year ♪

- Sutton has the most gorgeous voice

and I thought the one element that really struck me,

apart from her goofiness, she's quite goofy,

professional on the stage, but goofy off,

was her choice of songs, because they were so personal

and while they may not, some of them

have been, you know, traditional Christmas fare,

they absolutely relate to something,

that matters a lot to her, each of them

to do again with family and cherishing memories of people

and I just adore the John Denver,

that's always gonna be one of my Christmas songs now.

♪ Oh, Christmas, Christmas high among the stars ♪

- This year's concert, well, like all of them

is executed to an incredibly high standard of performance,

but I think this is shot through

with a sense of contemplation and reflection,

as well as enormous celebration.

The things we associate with Christmas,

with family, with connecting,

with reaching out to people less fortunate than ourselves,

commemorating those we've lost

and also being really excited about the prospect

of unwrapping presents, of giving to others

and I think this concert captures all that,

it has a real range of emotions pulsing through it.

I'm guessing 90 plus percent of those involved

are volunteers, are doing it because they love it

and it's that word, amateur, but the proper meaning of it

coming from the Latin, amo, amas, amat,

the love of what they do and that shines through,

I've not been in an environment like this on this scale,

that's number one, but number two,

the care and the passion and the joy,

that the performers derive from what they're doing,

I've found incredibly touching actually,

from the tiniest little angels running around

in their frock for the first time on stage

to the most, you know, senior citizen,

if I may put it like that of the orchestra or the choir,

the delight that people take

in sharing it with such a big audience,

that's what surprised me most,

I hadn't realized quite how much joy

people derive from performing, I know I do myself,

that's a wonderful live experience

that I'm used to and enjoy and I hadn't quite appreciated

that it's being shared by maybe 500 people on stage.

♪ La la la la la la la la la