by George Pitcher, Premier Christianity
A dubious claim about an archbishop’s complaint over The Archers reveals the BBC’s troubled relationship with religious programming. The corporation consistently misunderstands people of faith.
Trying to get the dogs fed before presiding at an early Eucharist in a neighbouring parish last Sunday morning, my old friend Ed Stourton caught my ear on Radio 4. He had an item on the 75th anniversary of The Archers and interviewed a writer and an actor from the vintage soap.
The actor was John Telfer, who plays Rev Alan Franks in the show and, as I bundled my stuff into the car, I heard him say that when his character married a Hindu in 2008 “the team” received a phone call from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office demanding: “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
[…] In those old days, the BBC tried to get as much of its religious hourage into the Sunday ghetto. Churches are all about Sunday, you see. Hence Songs of Praise, which insiders have long told me the corporation wanted to axe but couldn’t because it was too successful.
What was slightly hilarious about this Sunday policy (and it’s telling that Ed’s programme is simply called Sunday) is that it largely didn’t reach its Christian audience at all. I lost count many years ago of the times I was invited on to the BBC to discuss some church matter on a Sunday morning and the slight surprise when I said I couldn’t. Because I was at church.
The way I styled the intro to this column was illustrative; Christians are often dashing about on Sunday morning. This has adversely affected those congregants who might like to listen and participate, as well as we clergy. Meanwhile, the BBC’s religious output has degenerated into a blancmange of ethics and culture; a passing nod to the humanities while hurrying along its austere secular path.
Then there’s BBC drama. Not so long ago, clergymen (and it was men) were portrayed either as bumbling old fools with broken biscuits in their pockets, or sinister creeps likely defrauding their parishioners’ funds. Or they were a diversionary suspect in a murder mystery.