Saturday, April 28, 2007 | Reason : In the News | print version

Archive Hour: BBC and Religion

Jean Seaton, BBC Radio 4

Click here for the RealPlayer audio file. Download the free RealPlayer here.

Streaming : 57:59

Reposted from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archivehour/pip/2iak4/

Jean Seaton explores how the BBC has faced the task of trying to accommodate, explain and negotiate religious beliefs. From director general Lord Reith's reading of Blake's poem Jerusalem on the day the General Strike ended in 1926 to the controversy surrounding the decision to screen Jerry Springer: The Opera, the corporation has always had to tread carefully with regard to the nation's religious sensitivities.

--------------

Frequently a cause for lively comment (witness most recently the cases of _Jerry Springer: the Opera_), religious broadcasting has always provided a tightrope for the BBC to walk. How did it do so in the past and how does that inform today's debates? Jean Seaton, official historian of the BBC and professor of media history, uses broadcast and written archive, plus interviews with previous heads of religious broadcasting, to examine key moments in the Corporation's journey across the sea of faith.

Add to del.icio.us Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007 | Permalink

Comments 1 - 8 of 8 |

Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers

1. Comment #35730 by posiedon on April 28, 2007 at 3:42 pm

the corporation has always had to tread carefully with regard to the nation's religious sensitivities.

For jebus sake! when will the BBC realize that the nation's religious sensitivities. Are a figment of their own imagination.

Other Comments by posiedon

2. Comment #35731 by Bremas on April 28, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Remember to vote in the Time Magazine top 100 poll.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100walkup/article/0,28804,1611030_1610841_1610286,00.html

RD currently at number 7. Top 4 easily within reach.

Other Comments by Bremas

3. Comment #35744 by LeeC on April 28, 2007 at 6:50 pm

Why do we need to be sensitive to religion...? You do not need to be sensitive to Newton's 2nd Law?

If it is right, it is right... if it is wrong - then throw it away.

We should not have to "dance around" and always be polite to religion.

It's not as if religion has a good history of being "polite" to other religions or non-believers. (A burning at the stake for following Jesus the wrong way? Bloody Mary indeed. Ancient history? How about a bomb in Northern Ireland for not thinking the pope has all the answers?)

The BBC has a tough job of trying to please everybody… enough sport on TV for some, enough soaps for others… but when it comes to religion, all should be the treated the same – wrong and fanciful until proven otherwise…

Other Comments by LeeC

4. Comment #35785 by zeous on April 28, 2007 at 9:21 pm

Wow RD is already at position 6 on the list. Amazing!

Other Comments by zeous

5. Comment #35797 by Roy_H on April 28, 2007 at 10:34 pm

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/about_the_holy_bible.html
This was written in 1894....
"I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty -- the greatest obstruction across the highway of human progress."

Other Comments by Roy_H

6. Comment #35805 by Gurnet on April 28, 2007 at 11:19 pm

"How about a bomb in Northern Ireland for not thinking the pope has all the answers"

When did this happen?

Other Comments by Gurnet

7. Comment #35815 by scottishgeologist on April 29, 2007 at 12:41 am

Lord Reith gets a mention there. Guy was a total bastard, despite (or becasue of?) his so called calvinism. His daughter wrote a book about him - the abuse she suffered was awful

There is an absolutely fascinating article about him here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/02/nreith02.xml&site=5&page=0

Note: "son of the manse" Probably abused and infected with the disease himself.

And: "When he was 23, he formed a homosexual attachment to a 16-year-old boy, Charlie Bowser ("very good-looking, with awfully pretty eyes")"

And: "He was equally blinkered about his own menopausal extra-marital dalliances"

Only possible explanation: Religion can screw you up, big time.

Other Comments by scottishgeologist

8. Comment #36026 by Will S on April 30, 2007 at 1:20 am

Interesting programme! To my mind, the obvious omission was that there was no mention of the sheer dominance which the Christian churches used to exercise over the BBC, and the sheer volume of religious (i.e. Christian) broadcasting. There were certain periods on Sundays when it was so organised that you couldn't switch on BBC radio or television without encountering a religious message.

In 1955, an academic, Margaret Knight gave two short talks entitled 'Morals without religion' on (I think) the old Home Service - and all hell broke loose. The vultures weren't satisfied until there had been an additional programme in which she debated the issues with a religious representative.

Times have changed, thank goodness! We'd be well advised not to forget that.

Other Comments by Will S