'Strickland Banks may be soul, but it's still real life': Plan B

THE INTERNATIONAL lingua franca of Christmas TV is fromage and France's leading commercial channel, TF1, is no exception. Having arrived in Paris on a lunchtime train from his previous night's show in Brussels, Ben Drew is about to encounter the peculiarly Gallic festive special that is Les 500 Choristes Fêtent Noël.