D
do_justly_love_mercy
Guest
I am surprised that you say that. It’s been a few years since I was living in the UK, but I always found the BBC religious programming very good. In fact, as most BBC radio content (although not TV content) is accessible outside the UK, there are programs that I still listen to.
The formal Agreement between the BBC and the Secretary of State includes a commitment to religious broadcasting. The BBC has a head of religion and ethics as well as a religious affairs correspondent.
Furthermore, the BBC takes such pains to maintain impartiality that it is unlikely that it would risk revealing prejudice against any particular religion. The BBC always seems to be keen to balance left-leaning liberals such as Canon Giles Fraser and the Reverend Richard Coles with conservatives such as Melanie Phillips (who is Jewish) and Anne Atkins (an Anglican).
The BBC’s religious content includes worship (such as the Daily Service, Sunday Worship, Choral Evensong, and Songs of Praise), devotional talks (e.g. Thought for the Day and the annual Lent Talks), documentaries/discussion programs (The Moral Maze, Beyond Belief, Pilgrimage, etc.), and drama (such as Broken, an acclaimed drama series about a Catholic priest ministering in Liverpool). There is even more religious content on the BBC’s Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish stations, including content in Welsh and Scottish Gaelic. As for specifically Catholic material, the BBC broadcasts Catholic Masses, papal funerals and inaugurations, the installation of the archbishop of Westminster, etc. I thought it really was quite something that the BBC broadcast the installation of a metropolitan archbishop live on TV, given that the Catholic Church isn’t the established or national religion.