Promoting Excellence in Broadcasting about Religion, Ethics and Spirituality
2025 SSM Radio Times Readers’ Award Every year the Sandford St Martin Awards partner with the Radio Times to host a special competition in which members of the public can vote for their favourite programme exploring religious, spiritual and ethical themes. This year’s vote is open until 26th May at 11:59pm, with the winner being announced…
In an open letter to American Catholic Bishops last week, Pope Francis addressed Donald Trump’s policy of “mass deportations” and urged US Catholics to consider the “infinite and transcendent dignity of every human person”. “The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all … welcomes,…
In addition to a (rather splendid) trophy, the winning production teams in the four categories of our Sandford St Martin Awards competition also receive a modest grant which our trustees hope will be used to support their work and future projects exploring religion or belief. In return we ask them to keep in touch and…
Blogging about the Alf Layla wa Layla – or the Thousand and One Nights – for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Dr Shazia Jagot refers to how the intimacy of the story-telling contract between Scheherazade and her tyrannical husband Shahryar is forged. ‘(Scheherazade) turned to the king and said, ‘May I tell a story?’ ‘Yes’ he said. And she…
The Sandford St Martin 2023 Awards ceremony was held in Manchester University’s Whitworth Hall. This is an excerpt from the printed programme. When John Reith, the first Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation, took up his appointment at the BBC in December 1922, he brought baggage. The son of a minister with the Free Church…
On 29 March, the Department for Culture Media and Sport took significant steps in making good the Government’s intention to update the 2003 Communications Act when it published a draft Media Bill. The draft covers a lot of ground but those working in British broadcasting have been looking for the Bill to: Whether the draft…
It’s autumn and while we’ve got a new monarch and a (relatively new) prime minister and culture secretary, public service broadcasters are wrestling with the same old issues that were challenging it last spring. Not least among these are funding difficulties – particularly at the BBC which, following a low funding settlement, is putting its…
The beginning of a response to the Government’s proposal on a potential change of ownership In July 2021 the government published its plans to privatise Channel 4 and launched a public consultation on the same. This isn’t the first time the subject has been mooted. There have been numerous attempts to impose an “alternative ownership model” for Channel 4 since the 1990s. The most recent…
What does the UK think is right and wrong? The BBC’s survey of morality in 2019 The BBC has published the results of its major new survey on morality in the UK. Trailed as one of the flagship initiatives of its Year of Beliefs, the idea behind the survey was to explore contemporary attitudes to contentious issues…
Just over a week ago, the great Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman died in New York at the age of 87. When it comes to late 20th century film, he was a legend, his screen credits including ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ , ‘All the President’s Men’ (for which he won an Oscar) and ‘The…