Thursday, April 26, 2007

Jesus wants Chris Moyles for a sunbeam

Two bishops want to ensure that Radio 1 is forced to include some sort of religious element amongst its ungodly schedule of Moyles and Murray. The BBC Trust is currently interfering in what the various networks are supposed to do, and the Anglican Bishop of Manchester and the Catholic's Chair of the Communications Board Bishop want God to at least get a look in on the Live Lounge:

The bishops' concern is that this inconsistency in the way religion is treated will not help the Trust to govern effectively. In their submission, they also observe: 'Unless religion is appropriately included in the Radio 1 licence, audience needs may not be met.'

We're at a loss to understand what need might be going unmet by not having a god slot on one of the four major networks. With a shedload of religious (albeit mainly Christian) broadcasting elsewhere on the BBC, is it really so important to have another land-grab? Radio 1 does do religion as part of its mix anyway; spare them the imposition of another bloody quota.

We'd suggest that maybe Newsbeat might want to make the Bishops dreams of hearing more about the church on Radio 1 come true - covering the Archbishop of Canterbury's pronouncement that Tony Blair should "have prayed with George Bush" before dropping depleted uranium onto children, or working with Today to report on cover-ups of sexual abuse in the church.


1 comment:

James said...

Yay! Just what Radio 1 needs, another token public-service hour to awkwardly cram into the Sunday 3am slot. Maybe they could add it on to that other remit-covering show, the Sunday Surgery, and get it all over with in one go. That might be good actually. The religion guests could offer their own advice to callers.
"...so in conclusion, if Steven lets a little of Jesus' love into his life, I'm sure he'll soon see a big difference."
"Thank you, Dr Rowan Williams. And over to Dr Mark Hamilton, what do you think Steven should do about his genital warts?"

If they decide it has to be a show in its own right, I'd like to see them tie in the Live Lounge gimmick and ask each guest to perform an unlikely cover version.

"OK Reverend Roger Royle, what are you going to read for us?"
"*snicker* Well, I'm going to do Sura 14 from the Qur'an"
"*gasp* Oh wow! And why have you chosen to do that passage?"
"*giggle* Well, y'know, everyone thinks it's just a cheesy pop recitation, but it's actually a really good, well-written text!"

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