Worship Programmes
Songs of Praise is a worship programme which is the most popular, explicitly religious programme. Five to seven
million viewers watch this BBC programme every Sunday in the God Slot time between 5.00 and 6.00 pm.
'Songs of Praise' used to be a Christian hymn singing programme. Now, although it retains the singing of Christian songs
and hymns, its current aim is to inspire people's lives. Beyond the hymn singing, there are performances of Christian music.
Over the years performers like Lesley Garrett, 911 and Jimmy Ruffin have made appearances. The millennial edition included
singing by Bryn Terfel and Sir Cliff Richard.
Another important feature nowadays is the inclusion of human interest stories. These are testimonies from people local
to the place chosen for the broadcast who explain how faith has touched their lives.
ITV broadcasts an complete service live from a Christian Church during the Sunday morning 'God-slot' time. This is
welcomed particularly by those unable, for various reasons, to get to church that day. It may also be of interest to the
vaguely religious and those curious to know about the different styles and forms of Christian worship.
Whenever there is a religious festival for Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or Sikhism, both BBC and ITV broadcast meditation-
style programmes which focus on members of the particular faith living in Britain. They will tell what the festival means to
them.
Magazine Style Programmes
'The Heaven and Earth Show' is a day-time, magazine-style, religious programme. The presenters chat from a sofa "Richard and Judy" style, and
there are phone-in and e-mail opportunities. The following are typical of the sort of items that might be included in the
hour-length programme:
- The Mind and Body Festival in Manchester with New Age ideas and alternative medicine.
- an interview with Yuri Geller about his 'psychic' fork-bending powers
- recipes for Sunday lunch
- sex, lies and cover-up - a discussion of the Bill Clinton affair
- poetry
- an interview with a Hindu woman about her mixed marriage with an atheist Englishman. Later a discussion of the issue of mixed marriages with the Hindu woman, a Jewish rabbi and a sociologist.
- miraculous healing - bathing in Holy Well, sacred to St Winifred.
- an interview with Sir Cliff Richard about his new Christmas single (1999)
ITV has Sunday evening magazine-style programmes - Sunday Night and, for the under 25s, Holy Smoke.
Channel 5 broadcasts Alpha Zone, a programme of modern, Christian music, between 8 and 9 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Also, during that time period, a programme called My Sunday is put out, which focuses on famous people and celebrities.
