BBC announces new Religion & Ethics commissions across television and radio

• Television
• Radio

• Actor, comedian and writer, Humza Arshad presents new documentary, Finding Forgiveness (w/t) for BBC Two and iPlayer
• Exclusive access to a Mormon training centre in the UK in new film for BBC One and iPlayer, The Mormons are Coming (w/t)
• New three part series for Advent with actor and comedian Sally Phillips meeting three well-known faces - Revd Richard Coles, Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas and poet Lemn Sissay - to reflect on their memories of Christmas
• On BBC Radio 4, later this month, Catholic composer Sir James MacMillan considers the faith lives of four very different composers in Faith in Music
• Rabbi, writer and broadcaster Jonathan Romain reveals his Private Passions in conversation with Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3 this December
• Mica Paris returns to BBC Radio 2 with Mica's Gospel Gold, a four part series with music to lift the spirit
• On BBC Radio 4, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, returns for a new series of The Archbishop Interviews

Further content for Christmas will be announced later this month.

Daisy Scalchi, BBC Head of Religion & Ethics, Television, says: "The appetite for content about faith and beliefs is as strong as ever. These programmes can offer us a unique perspective on some of life's big questions, provide support and comfort during challenging times and bring us together in celebration for important moments like Advent and Christmas.

Over the past year, series such as A Believer's Guide To… and Pilgrimage, as well as single films like Two Daughters, with the extraordinary Mina and Chris Smallman, have shown people grappling with questions of meaning, purpose and exploring what faith means to them.
In addition, our Faith and Hope for Spring season returned for a second year, with content marking key faith festivals across the BBC networks. The Faith and Hope rail on iPlayer continues as a central hub where audiences can find recent religion programming highlights.

The new documentaries announced today demonstrate our commitment to exploring the role faith and belief have in how we live our lives - from finding forgiveness in the most difficult of circumstances, to seeing what compels young people to pick a different path, away from many of society's norms, in becoming Mormon missionaries. In addition, I'm also delighted that the Revd Richard Coles, Lemn Sissay and Shirley Ballas are all sharing their poignant Christmas memories with Sally Phillips in a special new Advent series for BBC One."

Tim Pemberton, BBC Head of Religion & Ethics, Radio, says: "Throughout this last year, BBC Radio's faith programmes have been a source of companionship and contemplation.

Highlights include our series with The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Radio 4's The Archbishop Interviews, offering insight into the inner lives of public figures from former Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, to authors Stephen King and Elif Shafak. I'm delighted it's returning for a new series next year. And I'm thrilled that Mica Paris is bringing another series of Mica's Gospel Gold to Radio 2, celebrating the spirit and the joy of gospel music.

2023 also welcomes in a new presenter, as Aleem Maqbool takes the reins at Beyond Belief, after Ernie Rea announced his retirement earlier this year. Until then, we have Lord Rowan Williams' Reith Lecture on Freedom of Worship and a new series of Faith in Music on Radio 4, Rabbi Jonathan Romain's Private Passions on Radio 3 and all the festive religion programmes throughout December and into January."

JH

Further details of the new announcements:

Television

My Life At Christmas With Sally Phillips

In a special series of films for Advent, actor and comedian Sally Phillips meets three well-known faces to explore how their memories of Christmas reflect the enormous changes they have gone through in their lives, careers, family and faith.

In the first episode Revd Richard Coles reflects on his Christmas journey from childhood chorister and Communards fame, to life as a vicar and the death of his beloved life-partner David. He takes Sally back to the church pew where he found his faith to discover how Christmas brought some of the most joyful, meaningful and sorrowful moments in his life.

In the second episode, Sally meets poet Lemn Sissay who spent years in the care system after being taken from his mother as a baby. He reveals how his experience gave him the passion to make Christmas special for hundreds of other care leavers.

Finally, Sally visits the home of Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas who shares her story of hard work, passion and loss - with one particularly tragic Christmas at its heart.

My Life at Christmas with Sally Phillips was commissioned by Daisy Scalchi. It is 3x60 for BBC One and is being made by Big Circus where the Executive Producers are Elliot Falk, Gareth Collett and Matt Baker, Simon Goodman is Series Producer and Julian Smith is the Director.

Humza Arshad - Finding Forgiveness (w/t)

What happens when your instincts tell you to seek revenge but your faith requires you to forgive? In this 60 minute documentary for BBC One, YouTube sensation and stand-up comedian, Humza Arshad, embarks on a personal journey to see if unsettled scores can be left behind. As a teenager, Humza's cousin suffered a brutal and unprovoked attack by a group of young men. He knows the perpetrators will have all now walked free, but can he really forgive what these men did to his family? His cousin has managed to and wants Humza to do the same. Humza in turn wants to release the anger he feels towards them. He's built a life, and career, teaching peace and reconciliation but can he truly live by the message he's been preaching?

Humza seeks out those who've managed to forgive their attackers; will hearing from those who've found forgiveness, in the most difficult circumstances, bring him any closer to it himself? Grappling with his inability to move on, Humza has an unexpected encounter with a killer who has sought forgiveness from his victim's family and goes head to head with a 'forgiveness academic'.

With the help of his straight talking Mum, and kept afloat by his faith and his unique sense of humour, Humza must confront the past and look for a way forward. His final "Badman" show clocked up 40 million views, he has won an MBE for his work in education and has over 40,000 followers on Instagram but fame and notoriety have done little to prepare him for his current mission. This could just be the toughest gig yet . . .

Humza Arshad - Finding Forgiveness was commissioned by Daisy Scalchi for BBC Two. The 1x60 film is being made by Drummer Television with Director Ahmed Peerbux, Consultant Executive Producer Mark Henderson and Executive Producers Tamsin Summers and Rachel Drummond-Hay.

The Mormons Are Coming (w/t)

They're young, attractive, love Heavenly Father and believe the Book of Mormon is true.

Every year around 53,000 young people set out to serve as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. The largest full time missionary force of any church, most are aged 18-25, and are away from home for up to two years.

The missionaries put normal lives on pause to spend six days a week spreading the Gospel and finding potential converts to be baptised. They are coached in marketing techniques such as using reels and DMs to reach young recruits whilst forsaking most aspects of contemporary life for the strict social restraints of the church. The goal is to grow their unique brand of Christianity, with a membership of 16.8 million worldwide, and achieve salvation and eternal life with God.

This revealing film follows three young missionaries as they arrive at the training centre in Chorley, Lancashire. The only one of its kind in Europe, it prepares missionaries from America, Europe and as far afield as Australia for their work in the UK.

The first time the Mormon Church has allowed access to this training centre, we see the toughest first three months of training and work in the field, which can make or break a missionary. As the realities of missionary life dawns on the new recruits, and with limited contact with their families, the pressure to achieve a baptism mounts.

The church believes the skills they acquire on mission set them up for success later in life as the focus shifts towards the next important milestone of marriage and starting a family. But it's not the life for everyone - will all of them make it?

The Mormons are Coming w/t (1x60) was commissioned by Daisy Scalchi for BBC One and is being produced by Peggy Pictures.

Radio

Mica's Gospel Gold - BBC Radio 2

Next year, Mica Paris returns to BBC Radio 2 with Mica's Gospel Gold, a four part series with music to lift the spirit and some familiar best-selling artists telling Mica about their love for gospel.

Each episode will feature a carefully curated playlist that both celebrates the best gospel music, as performed by our biggest and most beloved stars, but also introduces the cream of contemporary gospel - from the US megastars to the British artists and the choirs that popstars line-up to collaborate with.

Episode one is dedicated to two friends and two peerless gospel performers, Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples. Mica traces their incredible gospel careers and influence on pop and gospel stars through to the present day, such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill. Episode two focuses on British gospel with a look at the choirs and current stars in the UK dominating their field and those artists influenced by the genre. In the third episode, Mica will be Raising the Roof with an hour of the best up-tempo, high energy gospel classics, where Mica explains just how these artists reach such a crescendo. And in episode four, in The Gospel of Pop Revisited, Mica has more of the best gospel that left the church and crossed into the pop charts.

Producer: Jenny Smith, BBC Audio

Private Passions: Rabbi Jonathan Romain - BBC Radio 3, Sunday 11 December

Rabbi, writer and broadcaster Jonathan Romain is minister of Maidenhead Synagogue and one of Britain's leading rabbis in Reform Judaism. He's the author of twenty books - some scholarly and learned, and others which are very funny - revealing the ups and downs of his day-to-day work, in a way which will resonate with vicars, priests and religious leaders of any description. He's become a kind of agony uncle, dispensing advice on love affairs, marriage, parenthood, and he's written about all this in "Confessions of a Rabbi" and in his latest book, "The Naked Rabbi". On the more serious side, he's a prominent figure in the campaign for Assisted Dying, he was awarded an MBE for his work on inter-faith marriage, and he's spent much of the last year working with Ukrainian refugees.

In conversation with Michael Berkeley, ahead of the start of Hannukah on 18th December, Jonathan Romain talks about what he's learned over the years as a rabbi about love and marriage, and why some of his views put him very much out on a limb. His playlist takes in Max Bruch, Leonard Cohen, Rimsky-Korsakov and a tribute to his love of football. And he tells us his favourite Jewish joke.

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3

The Archbishop Interviews - BBC Radio 4

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, returns for a new series of The Archbishop Interviews. In each half-hour episode, the Archbishop will ask his guests about how they have navigated their inner life alongside their public profile.

Guests from the first series included former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who reflected on the Iraq war, Afghanistan and negotiating the Good Friday Agreement, while the author Stephen King discussed his battles with addiction. British-Turkish novelist and political scientist Elif Shafak talked about depression, faith and doubt in a candid interview with the Archbishop.

Guest for this second series will be announced in due course.

Producer: Dan Tierney for BBC Radio 4

Faith In Music - BBC Radio 4 - Sunday 27 November

Catholic composer Sir James MacMillan considers the faith lives of four very different composers.

Over the centuries, composers have created musical masterpieces which many listeners have come to regard as spiritual touchstones. For example, Tallis's motet Spem in alium, Wagner's opera Parsifal, Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, Bernstein's Mass. But what did these composers actually believe about God, faith, compassion, an afterlife and redemption? And do we need to share these beliefs in any way, to have a spiritual experience as listeners to their music?

Answers to these questions are complex, fascinating and challenging.

Thomas Tallis witnessed England's faith switch four times in his life, yet he cleverly survived without persecution to live into his 80s. He composed through the reign of Henry VIII, who broke away from Rome to create the Church of England. Then, he had to totally switch his compositional style to please Edward VI. Mary I was a Catholic, which signalled a return to earlier techniques. And finally, Protestant Elizabeth I required a different type of religious music again.

James MacMillan talks with conductors Harry Christophers, Peter Phillips and Suzi Digby about the sort of man Thomas Tallis must have been to not only survive the religious and political upheavals that he witnessed throughout his life, but also to compose some of the most magnificent English choral music ever written.

Produced by Rosie Boulton

A Must Try Softer production for BBC Radio 4