''Songs of Praise'' is a

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

religious programme that presents

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the

Tabernacle Baptist Church Tabernacle Baptist Church (also known as Evans Avenue Baptist Church and now Mt Pisgah Missionary Baptist) is a historic church building at 1801 Evans Avenue in Fort Worth, Texas. It was built in 1923 and added to the National Register of Hist ...

in Cardiff. It is one of the longest running series of its genre on television anywhere in the world.

Presenters and contributors

Presenters of the show have included Kwame Kwei-Armah, Geoffrey Wheeler, Michael Barratt, Cliff Michelmore,

Sir Harry Secombe Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, m ...

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, Debbie Thrower,

Bruce Parker Bruce Rodney Wingate Parker, (born 20 July 1941) is a British journalist and television presenter whose career spanned the mid-1960s to 2003, when he retired. Career Strongly committed to regional broadcasting, he was responsible in the mid-1 ...

, Ian Gall, Martin Bashir, Huw Edwards, Eamonn Holmes, Josie d'Arby,

Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards may refer to: Musicians *Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, pseudonym of bandleader Paul Weston and his wife, singer Jo Stafford *Jonathan Edwards (musician) (born 1946), American musician ** ''Jonathan Edwards'' (album), debut album ...

Steve Chalke Stephen John "Steve" Chalke (born 17 November 1955) is a British Baptist minister, the founder of the Oasis Charitable Trust, a former United Nations' Special Adviser on Human Trafficking and a social activist. Chalke is a Fellow of the Royal Soc ...

, David Grant,

Bill Turnbull William Robert Jolyon Turnbull (25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022) was an English television and radio presenter and journalist, whose broadcasting career spanned over four decades. He began his career working for radio stations including Rad ...

Sally Magnusson Sally Anne Magnusson (born 1955) is a Scottish broadcast journalist, television presenter and writer, who currently presents the Thursday and Friday night edition of BBC Scotland's ''Reporting Scotland''. She also presents ''Tracing Your Roots'' ...

, Diane-Louise Jordan, Connie Fisher and Dan Walker. Guest presenters have included Sir Cliff Richard,

Gavin Peacock Gavin Keith Peacock (born 18 November 1967) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit. As a player he was midfielder and striker from 1984 until 2002, notably playing in the Premier League for Newcastle United ...

, Michael Buerk, Pete Waterman, Ann Widdecombe and Caron Keating. Jonathan Edwards' departure from the programme in 2007 was notable after he publicly renounced his Christian faith. The current main presenters are Aled Jones,

Katherine Jenkins Katherine Maria Jenkins (born 29 June 1980) is a Welsh singer. She is a mezzo-soprano and performs operatic arias, popular songs, musical theatre, and hymns.Sean Fletcher,

Kate Bottley Kate Bottley (' Stevenson) is a Church of England priest in North Nottinghamshire, a role which she combines with her other roles of journalist, media presenter and reality television star. She appears frequently on British radio and televisio ...

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, Claire McCollum, JB Gill, Katie Piper,

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Pam Rhodes Pam Rhodes (born 22 September 1950) is an English television, radio presenter and author, known for presenting BBC Television's long-running religious series ''Songs of Praise'' since the early 1980s. Early life Rhodes was born in Gillingham, Kent ...

Gemma Hunt Gemma Hunt (born 1 April 1982) is a British presenter who also used to be on the CBBC TV series ''Xchange''. CBBC Hunt joined the CBBC continuity team in 2002, since then she has presented on the CBBC Channel and also on BBC One and BBC Two. In ...

, James Lusted,

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, and

Radzi Chinyanganya Munyaradzi Thomas Kingsley "Radzi" Chinyanganya (born 12 September 1986) is a British presenter and broadcaster. He co-presented the BBC children's TV programme ''Blue Peter'' from 2013 until 2019, and the ITV game show ''Cannonball'' in 2017. ...

Format

Until a change of format in November 2014, the programme featured congregations from churches and cathedrals singing hymns alongside interviews with people from the church from which the programme was broadcast with a exploration by the presenter of that week's theme, all from the same location. November 2014 saw the programme adopt more of a magazine format. The stated intention was to evolve the series to reflect the wider Christian audience across the country. Music remains at the heart of the series, but is now more varied in style, reflecting the broad range of Christian genres in each programme and across the series; there is no longer a single location where the music and stories come from each week. The series continued to be usually broadcast between 4 and 5pm on Sundays; though as of 2018 onwards, it has generally been broadcast in a lunchtime slot. The new format continues with special programmes marking Easter and Remembrance Sunday as well as the popular two Big Sing programmes from the Royal Albert Hall and the School Choir of the Year contest. The more recent Gospel Choir of the Year began recording in Birmingham Town Hall in 2013 and in 2014 was recorded at The Hackney Empire in London. The show has included interviews with Tony Blair,

Frances Shand Kydd Frances Ruth Shand Kydd (previously Spencer, ''née'' Roche; 20 January 1936 – 3 June 2004) was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. She was the maternal grandmother of William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, respectively ...

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and members of the British Royal Family.

Scheduling

Until the relaxation of broadcasting hours restrictions in the autumn of 1972, it was regulated by the government under the control of the Postmaster General that all television broadcasting on Sunday evenings from 6:15 pm–7:25 pm should be "closed" and used only for religious programming on both BBC and ITV. Until 1958, no programmes were broadcast during this time slot, until a compromise was reached between the churches and the Postmaster General, where religious programming would be acceptable to air in this time slot to avoid people from not attending Sunday evening church services. It was under these restrictions and regulations that ''Songs of Praise'' was created. At its inception in October 1961, the programme was broadcast at 6:15 pm. From September 1962, it moved to 6:50 pm and then to 6:40 pm from April 1977 with a daytime repeat, generally shown on the following day with BSL. Religious programming was also broadcast on ITV in the same time slot, but this custom ended in late December 1992. From January 1993, the programme's scheduled broadcast time was changed to 6:25 pm and then 6:10 pm from January 1996. Since then, the time of broadcast has tended to shift slightly earlier, but the precise slot has often varied from week to week. As of January 2021, the programme has now been placed in a new permanent lunchtime slot on a Sunday, after the Sunday lunchtime news, usually scheduled at 1.15pm. For many years, the series was replaced during the summer months by other Christian-themed programming. From 1977 until 1993, a selection of hymns from the previous year's shows, linked by Thora Hird reading requests and dedications, was featured in ''Your Songs of Praise Choice'', which changed its name to ''Praise Be!'' in the 1980s. Other summer replacements included ''Home on Sunday'' (1980–88) and ''Sweet Inspiration'' (1993–94).

Events

Events have included a 3 October 1982 broadcast from Strangeways Prison (the first time it had broadcast from a prison), a 2 January 1983 broadcast from the Falkland Islands, and a broadcast from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. A competition was held in honour of the 20th anniversary in which people submitted newly written hymns. Fifteen winners were published in a book ''New Songs of Praise I''. The programme staged its largest event at the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national rug ...

in Cardiff on the first Sunday of 2000. A live audience of over 60,000 people came to sing hymns, with a 6,000 piece choir, an orchestra of 100 harps, the band of the Welsh Guards and an anthem specially written by Lord

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

. The programme was produced by

John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

. Ian Bradley said the event had a "wonderful vulgarity" but that it also had an "infectious sense of community" Each year since 2003, three consecutive weeks of the programme (usually in April) have been devoted to the School Choir of the Year competition – the first two weeks being semi-finals featuring junior and senior school choirs respectively, with the final of both categories in the third week. In order to cut costs, the Easter 2007 edition of the show was recorded at the same time as the Christmas 2006 edition of the show at Lichfield Cathedral in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

– with simple changes in lighting and flowers to reflect the two major services. The Bishop of Lichfield Jonathan Gledhill, said the early recording was not a "deliberate deceit" but would give "an air of unreality" to the Easter programme, while a BBC spokeswoman said it was "common practice" to film two shows at once due to the costs in setting up lighting rigs, especially in a large cathedral. The 16 August 2015 broadcast, filmed at an Ethiopian Orthodox church in the Calais jungle, received criticism from the media including the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', who stated the BBC was "out of touch" and that the show had "political propaganda". In response, the Anglican Bishop of Leeds Nick Baines and

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

Justin Welby defended the BBC's decision as reflecting the Church's teachings on poverty. Meanwhile, the Reverend

, former ''Songs of Praise'' presenter and well-known Christian social activist, wrote:

Reception and impact

In the early 1990s, the weekly reach of the show was about 25% of the British population. In 1998, the average viewership was between 5 and 6 million. Because of the long-time transmission of ''Songs of Praise'' following the Sunday evening news, the time slot has become known as the "God slot". The show has been accused of "abandon ngits long-standing commitment to straightforward hymns and 'ordinary' people talking about their often very extraordinary lives and faith and becoming increasingly obsessed with celebrities and soft-focus schmaltz". The show featured in episodes of the BBC comedy television series '' The Vicar of Dibley''. The show is also broadcast in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

at 11:30am on Sundays, and in the Netherlands on NPO 2 at 12pm, also on Sundays.

Competitive tender

In 2016, as part of their new charter agreement, the BBC announced that they would put all their programmes which were due for recommission out to competitive tender over an eleven-year period, with independent companies invited to bid to make the shows, although the BBC would retain all interstitial property rights. '' A Question of Sport'' was the first programme to go through this process with BBC Studios winning the commission and retaining the rights to make the show in house. ''Songs of Praise'' followed shortly after but on 10 March 2017 it was announced that the tender had been won by two independent production companies; Avanti Media based in Cardiff and Nine Lives Media located in Manchester who would be producing the show for the next three years as a co-production. Avanti Media also produced its Welsh-language originator ''

Dechrau Canu, Dechrau Canmol is a television series featuring congregational Christian singing in the Welsh language. Currently broadcast by the Welsh-language television channel S4C, it is one of the longest-running television programmes on any British television channel ...

'' from 2006 until 2017 when its production tender was won by Rondo Media (a company which also produces Welsh soap opera ''

Rownd a Rownd ''Rownd a Rownd'' ( en, "Round and Round") is a Television in Wales, Welsh soap opera created by Rondo Media (formally Ffilmiau’r Nant) and shown on S4C since 11 September 1995. It was claimed to be the first Celtic-related language soap speci ...

''). In May 2022, Avanti and Nine Lives announced they would not renew their tender deal to produce the series, with the BBC announcing that they would look for a new company to produce the show beginning in June 2023. On 31 March 2023, CTVC were announced as the winners.

References

External links

* *
50th anniversary in October 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Songs Of Praise 1961 British television series debuts 1960s British television series 1970s British television series 1980s British television series 1990s British television series 2000s British television series 2010s British television series 2020s British television series BBC Television shows Television series about Christianity Christian mass media in the United Kingdom British religious television series Television series by BBC Studios