THE BBC has announced its Easter programming. It includes live worship from Canterbury Cathedral, a latest series of Pilgrimage on BBC2, and a performance of Bach’s St John Passion featuring a bunch of amateur singers.
The Archbishop of Canterbury will preach on the service in Canterbury Cathedral on Easter Day, broadcast on BBC1 and Radio 4, with choral evensong later from the identical cathedral to be aired on Radio 3.
On Radio 2 on Good Friday, the Archbishop of York and Canon Kate Bottley will likely be joined by other guests, including a former sub-postmaster caught up within the Horizon scandal, and a forged member from TV’s Call the Midwife, for a discussion about themes of sacrifice, forgiveness, and hope.
On Easter Day, the identical pair will likely be in discussion, which is predicted to feature cooking suggestions from Archbishop Cottrell.
A sunrise service from Durham Cathedral will start Easter Day on Radio 4, and is incorporated right into a “poetic pilgrimage” in Northumbria, through which the poet and churchwarden Jay Hulme reflects on the link between faith and the natural world within the north-east of England.
BBC/CTVCFrom left: Christine McGuinness, Eshaan Akbar, Sonali Shah, Tom Rosenthal, Michaela Strachan, Spencer Matthews, and Amanda Lovett, who appear in Pilgrimage: The road through North Wales
A latest TV series of Pilgrimage will begin on Good Friday, this time following seven well-known figures as they walk the Pilgrim’s Way in north Wales. On the identical day, a programme chronicling the chef and rapper Big Zuu’s pilgrimage to Mecca may even be broadcast.
Other non-Christian faith programming over the Easter weekend includes documentary movies on a boxing club in Walsall led by a Sikh coach, and a programme following 4 young Jewish people as they prepare for his or her bar and bat mitzvahs.
On Easter Day, Aled Jones will present Songs of Praise from St Martin’s, Canterbury, described because the oldest existing parish church within the English-speaking world, where Easter has been celebrated for 1500 years.
And the choirmaster Gareth Malone will conduct a performance of the St John Passion, featuring eight previously untrained performers alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC Singers, and a bunch of soloists. A two-part documentary about preparations for the performance will likely be broadcast on BBC1, starting on Good Friday, with the complete performance shown on BBC2 on Easter Day evening.
