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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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Religious broadcastingby Roger HutchingsIs religious broadcasting in the UK in good health? Well, as I write this, in various production companies around the land, executives are preparing their competitive bids to make 24 editions of the BBC1 programme, Heaven and Earth. It's not that the BBC is fed up with making the series: it's 'policy'. Religious programmes on radio and TV have to respond to a changing broadcasting world, in which value-for-money and the size and type of audience matters. Religious programmes must also respond to a changing religious world. I read yet another article in the daily press the other day which attacked not just the content but the very existence of Thought for the Day, which I guess many BiC readers hear in the mornings. There's no doubt that the prevailing secular majority has religious broadcasting in its sights. Still, that same daily press has so many 'stories' in which religion plays a part in some form or another, from voluntary-aided schools to the wearing of a cross at a BA check-in desk, from 'gay' adoption to the wearing of the hijab. Positively or negatively, religion is in the news, feature and comment pages, and if any defence of religious broadcasting is needed, perhaps that's where it starts: religion is part of the fabric of UK society, and ought to be reflected in an informed and careful way in the broadcast media. Life's always been quite tough for those involved in religious broadcasting. In the early days, it was Christians who questioned whether such broadcasting should be allowed. There may have been a brief 'golden age' in which religious programmes thrived unchallenged, but if so, it's long past. These days the challenges go on. People sometimes say to me as a former Editor of 'Songs of Praise' that the programme "isn't what it was." To which I can only say that if it were, it would probably be off the air by now! Religious programmes simply have to move on, or die. If every edition of Songs of Praise had seven hymns recorded by a large congregation in a beautiful, well-lit church, plus some interviews with the faithful, it might appeal more to those of us who go to church each week, but it wouldn't be truly popular 21st century television. Bryn Terfel and Hayley Westenra and what's called 'crossover' music may not be everyone's taste, but they're a necessary part of the battle to retain a large audience. That's the essence of the dilemmas which surround religious broadcasting
all the time. Who are the audience, and what is a programme seeking
to achieve? I'm not writing to defend any particular series or broadcast
network. I've witnessed in my working life enormous changes in what
religious broadcasting is available. The main loss on TV is worship.
It's disappeared completely from ITV, where I used to edit Morning Worship
every Sunday, and now appears only a few Sundays a year on the BBC.
Worship survives mainly on Radio 4, where the Daily Service is still
there, and Sunday Worship has a good audience. But Sunday Worship also
illustrates the changing world, as regular listeners will know. Most
churches don't have professional (or professional-standard) musicians,
so inevitably the programmes come mainly from the 'best' churches, or
else have musicians imported for the occasion. In terms of content,
the demands of the medium mean that more often than not we're not joining,
for example, a parish eucharist, but a specially-written act of worship
with linking narrative on a theme. It may not be worship as most of
us experience it, but it works. My own continuing contribution to religious broadcasting is mainly in broadcast worship and the occasional week of Prayer for the Day. I do it, to be honest, partly because I enjoy it, but I also continue to see it as a privilege, sharing something of our faith with fellow-citizens. |
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