by Catherine Pepinster, Telegraph
From the Gaza war to Christianity’s Gen-Z revival, religion is centre stage in 2026 – yet is so often neglected by our national broadcaster
Last month, I attended the “BBC Religion and Ethics Showcase” at New Broadcasting House expecting the announcement of some really impressive new projects. Yet only two shows were mentioned, both celebrity-dominated: the next series of Pilgrimage, a regular BBC Two offering about celebrities going on a religious trek; and Harry Clark Goes to Rome, a new take on celebrity-in-the-making Clark, winner of The Traitors, venturing to Rome to try to meet the Pope. As for radio, they didn’t announce anything at all.
There has, without doubt, been a marked decline in the Corporation’s religious output (a 42 per cent decrease on television since 2010) and there are two over-arching difficulties: lack of money and lack of commitment. At one time, the BBC’s responsibilities as a public service broadcaster included quotas for religious programming – but in 2023 the broadcasting regulator Ofcom replaced those quotas with a remit to provide what it vaguely termed a ‘broad output’, though recommendations still exist of 200 hours of television and 500 hours for radio. These hours include Sunday Worship and Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College on Christmas Eve – services that soak up a lot of those hours.