Promoting Excellence in Broadcasting about Religion, Ethics and Spirituality
This spring in celebration of Eid al-Fitr 2025, the BBC broadcast two special programmes from Bradford, the UK City of Culture marking the end of the month of Ramadan and the first time this service of worship has been televised live on a UK terrestrial channel. Along with five others, the Eid Live programmes have…
New research project addresses public service media policy challenges on a national level The Sandford St Martin Trust is delighted to be partnering with the University of Leeds in a research project to develop new methods to evaluate public service media provision across video-on-demand services. It’s now been more than one hundred years since British…
On June 17th – a perfect summer’s evening ‘all soft and still and fair’ – the Sandford St Martin 2024 Awards ceremony took place in one of London’s most beautiful and iconic buildings. Nestled on the south bank of the River Thames, Southwark Cathedral is at the heart of what has long been a lively and diverse…
Survey of Arab, Jewish and Muslim members of the UK film and TV workforce on their experiences relating to the conflict in Israel and Gaza on and after 7 October 2023 As part of their remit to support those working behind the scenes in film, TV, and cinema, the Film and TV Charity provide practical support with…
The days of ‘Stars on Sunday’ may be long gone, but a new era of intelligent and enlightening TV programmes has taken its place by Caroline Frost, first published in The Radio Times, 30 March 2024 “Religion on TV”: three words to send television commissioners reaching for the comfort of their chocolate Easter eggs as…
Sir, Religious literacy is more important than ever in today’s world. But the Media Bill, to be debated in the House of Lords on Wednesday, puts this core civic competency in peril by removing existing obligations for public service broadcasters to provide programming about religion or belief. We believe that to ignore religion is dangerous,…
Religion still deserves its place on the airwaves, says ‘Sunday’ host Edward Stourton For more than fifty years, BBC Radio 4’s ‘Sunday’ has examined news and current affairs through the lens of religion. The premise behind the programme being that religion does not exist in a vacuum. Which is to say it’s not isolated in…
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…
Living in the UK, it’s not uncommon for people to consider religion a primarily private concern: a set of ornamental practices or comparmentalised beliefs which affect niche groups of believers. From a wider geographic perspective, however, the impact religion can have on all aspects of society becomes much more clear. Perhaps nowhere is this so…
Broadcasters have immense influence when it comes to informing how audiences understand the world. What we see on our screens or hear on through our speakers can influence not only how we see others but also how we see ourselves. At the Sandford St Martin Trust we have long argued that this is why representation…