BEEB'S GAGA FOR RELIGIOUS RADIO
Broadcaster has respected long-running show
I'LL say one thing for the BBC - they take religious broadcasting seriously.
Last Sunday night BBC Radio 2 aired an hour long tribute to its longest-running radio programme Sunday Half Hour.
I've been privileged to be the presenter of this iconic programme for the past three years.
The occasion was celebrated with enthusiasm and dignity.
The programme's history is fascinating. In 1940, Britain was at war with Germany and for the BBC at the time the custom was to keep the tone of Sunday broadcasting serious and sacred.
The Forces Programme, which was the BBC's response to the war, offered a light alternative to the Home Service. But the question raised was what spiritual nourishment might be provided on Sundays for troops cooped up together in barrack rooms?
Different
The answer was provided by James Welch, the BBC's then director of religious broadcasting who asked the troops what they
wanted to hear. They responded: "Something to make our Sundays different but not dull."
He came up with Sunday Half Hour - a programme of hymn-singing followed by a short address.
It was to be good entertainment, with the church organ and sound of women's voices reminding the troops of the home atmosphere so that "men should enjoy it".
The churches were not so sure about the revolutionary new broadcast though. It was to be scheduled in the early evening and might disrupt their evening services.
The first broadcast finally went ahead on Sunday, July 14, 1940, with hymns including "We love the place O God" (which was sung
again on the 70th anniversary programme).
Although the location wasn't announced, the first programme was broadcast from the Church of St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. Not only was it a day of thunderstorms, but it was also the first Sunday of the Battle of Britain and later that evening, German bombers raided Bristol.
A few weeks later, the Radio Times noted that Sunday Half Hour was coming from "a country church" and although many famous musicians conducted the hymns, its appeal lay in the fact that the sound of singers was the sound of ordinary men and women.
Clergy
The programme wasn't confined to churches either; hymns were sung from barracks, factories and even cinemas. Local clergy including forces chaplains took the service and delivered the "short address".
In peacetime, Sunday Half Hour continued to be broadcast on the Light Programme and in 1954 they were joined by millions of listeners to the World Service.
The Sunday Half Hour audience - before the widespread arrival of television - was huge. The arrival of television, however, severely dented the radio audience as many Sunday Half Hour listeners moved over to Songs of Praise (which celebrates its 50th birthday next year).
Yet there are still hundreds of thousands who listen every Sunday at 8.30pm. The programme underwent a major change in early 1990 in order to fit more easily into the fast changing celebrity-driven Radio 2 network.
Canon Roger Royle was appointed to present the programme. He continued to introduce hymns until retiring from broadcasting at Easter 2007. I took over when he retired when head of BBC 2 Radio went out on a limb to choose an Irish priest for the role of presenter.
Hymns speak deeply about faith for people whether or not they see themselves as religious. Sunday Half Hour is a programme that connects families and friends in a friendly, prayerful way all over the world.
Sunday Half Hour includes music from all denominations. Hymn-singing is a link with our Christian heritage - whether people go to
church or not - and a link with other people throughout the United Kingdom who make time to listen to their favourite hymns.
The 70th anniversary programme was recorded in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields with a massed choir made up of singers who had recorded for Sunday Half Hour in the recent past.
Memories
I introduced the programme live and it included memories from listeners and contributors as well as birthday greetings from Cliff Richard, Aled Jones, Pam Rhodes and Daniel O'Donnell and many other fans of the programme.
The fact that the BBC still broadcast a religious devotional programme continuously for 70 years on their most popular station shows
their commitment in total.
No kicking into the nether regions of longwave of broadcasting for the Beeb.
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