The BBC is marking Easter and other key faith festivals this spring with a broad range of content, including originals from Wildstar Films, Somersault Studio,Cactus TV, Doubleband Films and Firecracker Films.
Programming for Easter includes Easter Live Worship from St Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol on BBC One and iPlayer as well as Easter Sunday Worship live from Canterbury Cathedral on BBC Radio 4, where the Right Reverend Rose Hudson Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, preaches an Easter message of hope and resurrection. New series, Gareth Malone’s Messiah follows the choirmaster as he stages his own performance of this popular choral piece in the magnificent surroundings of Cardiff’s Llandaff Cathedral.
There are three special episodes of Songs of Praise – the Rev Kate Bottley presents an episode on Women of the Easter Story, Aled Jones brings audiences a rich variety of hymns for Easter Sunday from St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark and there is a celebration of gospel music introduced by Mark De-Lisser; and BBC One will show Urbi et Orbi on Easter Sunday Morning, live from Rome.
Other programming for the Faith and Hope season includes a brand new series of Pilgrimage which sees a new group of well-known faces with differing faiths and beliefs walk through the Austrian and Swiss Alps; two episodes of Celebration Kitchen celebrate Passover and Wesak Day; Amol Rajan visits the Ganges to explore the biggest gathering on Earth – the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival in Northern India; and Eid Live and Celebrity Eid mark the end of Ramadan from Bradford UK City of Culture 2025.
Daisy Scalchi, BBC Television’s Head of Commissioning, Religion and Ethics, says: “This is the fifth annual Faith and Hope season and once again I’m incredibly excited by the range of programmes we have on offer this Spring. Whether audiences are religious or not, there is content here that will move, inspire and delight.”
Songs of Praise – produced by CTVC
Women of the Easter Story – Holy Week, 13 AprilAt the start of Holy Week, Rev. Kate Bottley explores the vital role that women played in the events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection – the week that changed the world.
Kate returns to Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire where she was ordained in 2009 to visit “Threads Through The Bible” an exhibition of giant tapestries depicting biblical scenes. There she hears the testimonies of three modern-day women inspired by Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the unnamed woman who washes Jesus’s feet.
Easter Sunday – 20 April
To celebrate Easter Sunday Aled Jones presents a special Songs of Praise from St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark, south London. Aled joins the packed, multi-cultural congregation and reflects with the Cathedral Dean on the meaning of Easter and the Pope’s Year of Jubilee.
With a rich range of Easter hymns from St George’s Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral and a very special performance from The Serbian Orthodox Church of St Lazar, Lazarica Church, Bournville, to mark the rare event of Eastern and Western Christians celebrating Easter on the same day.
Sing Gospel – Sunday 27 April
Mark De-Lisser introduces a very special Songs of Praise event celebrating gospel music in Union Chapel, London. Renowned gospel choir Sound Foundation lead a packed congregation for praise that is sure to get hands clapping, toes tapping and spirits lifted. With very special guests Michelle John and Wayne Ellington.
Celebration Kitchen – Cactus TV
To celebrate one of the most important festivals in the Jewish calendar, Passover is the focus of this Celebration Kitchen. Also known as Pesach in Hebrew, Passover can last for seven or eight days depending on where in the world it is celebrated. It’s a spring festival, commemorating the story of Exodus. In this special episode, Matt Tebbutt will be joined by a group of fantastic guests who will guide us through the traditions and key meals that make up the festival of Passover.The second Celebration Kitchen shines a light on a significant day in the Buddhist calendar – Wesak Day, which falls on the full moon in May. It celebrates the birth, death and enlightenment of Buddha. Joining host, Matt Tebbutt, to celebrate this festival and learn about its food and traditions are TV and radio presenter and broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake, actor Tanya Moodie and celebrity chef Ken Hom and cooking up some mouth-watering dishes will be two-Michelin star chef Andrew Wong, food writer, cook and fermenting expert Kenji Morimoto and Thai street food chef Worawan Khamann.
Gareth Malone’s Messiah – Somersault Studio
275 years after a ground-breaking charity concert saw George Frideric Handel perform his Messiah for the benefit of London’s foundlings, Gareth Malone is set to stage his own performance of the nation’s favourite choral piece in the magnificent surroundings of Cardiff’s Llandaff Cathedral as a fundraiser for BBC Children in Need.The programme has been commissioned by BBC Factual and BBC Cymru Wales following on from a successful earlier series, Gareth Malone’s Easter Passion, broadcast in 2024. The programmes will see Gareth trim hundreds of applicants down to just eight singers who have never sung in a classical choir before, and then train them to perform a work that has dominated the British choral tradition for hundreds of years. Gareth’s eight singers will reveal even the most inexperienced musicians can tackle Messiah as they bring enthusiasm and hard work to this once-in-a-lifetime challenge.
Gareth’s new recruits, might not have tried choral music before or even heard of Handel, but they will have just seven weeks from audition to performing Messiah alongside the acclaimed BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. Also appearing will be a stellar professional cast of soprano Jessica Robinson, alto Rebecca Afonwy-Jones, baritone Roderick Williams OBE who sang at the King’s Coronation, and tenor James Way.
Pilgrimage – CTVC
With Easter approaching, the annual Pilgrimage series is returning to BBC Two and iPlayer next month, as seven well known personalities, of differing faiths and beliefs, tackle a challenging pilgrimage through the majestic and awe-inspiring Austrian and Swiss Alps.Across 3 x 60 minute episodes, the brand new, Pilgrimage: The Road Through the Alps, will follow celebrity pilgrims, as they take a personal journey along a revived medieval Catholic route, travelling from just outside Innsbruck on the Austrian Camino and finishing near Lake Zurich in Switzerland.
Taking part in this physical and spiritual journey are; agnostic Jay McGuiness, singer from boy band, The Wanted; actor and comedy legend Helen Lederer who is from a mixed heritage background, with a culturally Jewish father and a Protestant mother; practising Catholic, Harry Clark – The Traitors (series two) winner; standup comedian Daliso Chaponda, who grew up in a Christian family but is exploring the Baha’i faith; presenter Jeff Brazier, who went to Catholic schools but now is spiritual and meditates as part of his everyday life; retired Paralympian and practising Christian Stef Reid and journalist Nelufar Hedayat, who refers to herself as a modern Muslim.
Pilgrimage: The Road Through the Alps (3 x 60 minutes) is a CTVC production and has been commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The series is Executive Produced by CTVC’s Caroline Matthews and Michele Kurland and Series Produced by Toni Williamson.
Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges – Wildstar Films
Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges (working title) is a one-hour documentary special from Wildstar (part of Fremantle) for BBC One and iPlayer exploring the biggest gathering on Earth – the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival in Northern India.Journalist and presenter Amol Rajan joins up to 500 million pilgrims from all over the globe who come together for the world’s largest religious festival. The festival, which takes place every 12 years, is the largest in human history, and this year’s Kumbh is a once in a lifetime event, due to a special alignment of the planets in the solar system, which last occurred 144 years ago. Pilgrims numbering more than the combined populations of the US and UK gather in an area the size of Manhattan, at the confluence of three sacred rivers, to purify themselves in the waters and gain salvation for themselves and their families.
This is a profoundly personal journey for Amol, who was born in India to a practising Hindu family. Amol has struggled to come to terms with the death of his father three years ago and hopes that reconnecting with his birthplace, at one of Hinduism’s most important religious events, could help him process his grief.
Amol Rajan says: “This journey is both a monumental privilege, and an invitation to understand one of the most beautiful, complex, and profound religions and civilisations our world has ever known. It also comes – as viewers will discover – at a vital moment for me. Truly, this is the most auspicious adventure I have ever been on. Me and 500 million fellow pilgrims, that is…”
Eid Live and Celebrity Eid – co-production between Firecracker Films and Bradford-based Amplify Consulting
In celebration of Eid al-Fitr 2025, BBC Factual announces two special programmes for spring this year: Eid Live and Celebrity Eid, both coming from Bradford UK City of Culture 2025, for BBC One and iPlayer, marking this special moment in the Islamic calendar at the end of the month of Ramadan.The first of these two new programmes will be broadcast live on BBC One and iPlayer, presented by the BBC’s Jason Mohammad alongside Imam Qari Asim MBE, who will be offering unique insights into the sermon, prayers, ritual and celebrations. The episode will come from Bradford Central Mosque on the morning of Eid and will be the first time this service of worship has been televised live on a UK terrestrial channel.
Later the same day, BBC One and iPlayer will air a second programme, which will see well-known Muslim faces coming together with Muslim and non-Muslim friends and neighbours to celebrate the arrival of Eid.
Both programmes will be presented by Jason Mohammad, and guests for Celebrity Eid include Asma Khan; Dr Amir Khan; Duaa Karim; Fatiha El-Ghorri and Shazia Mirza and Adam Azim.
Ride Or Die (WT) – Doubleband Films
To outsiders, racing on closed public roads at speeds in excess of 200mph might be hard to understand. For many of those who do it, it’s all-consuming passion – providing a sense of purpose, community and fulfilment. Each May, around 100 road racers from across the globe make a sporting pilgrimage to Northern Ireland to take part in the iconic North West 200. Religious faith plays an important, but often hidden, role in the lives of many of those involved. And it’s something that informs how they think about the risks associated with the sport that they love. Ride Or Die, for BBC Northern Ireland, BBC One and iPlayer captures the excitements and drama of motorcycle road racing and the everyday faith of competitors and their families.Ride Or Die (WT) is a DoubleBand Films production for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC One and was commissioned as part of the Hot House commissioning initiative with support from Northern Ireland Screen. The Commissioning Editor for BBC Northern Ireland is Justin Binding, the Commissioning Editor for BBC One is Daisy Scalchi.
Image: Gareth Malone’s Messiah (Credit: BBC/Somersault Studio/Simon Gough)
Pippa Considine
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