Eid, Diwali and Passover get BBC primetime slots

STORYLINES about Ramadan and Passover are likely to be written into BBC dramas under plans to devote more airtime to non-Christian faiths.

The corporation yesterday unveiled a shake-up of its religious coverage, following concerns it no longer reflects modern Britain.

In future, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Hindu festivals are to be marked in primetime programmes, including The One Show and Chris Evans’s Radio 2 breakfast show.

And popular dramas are likely to show characters celebrating holy days or grappling with religious dilemmas after audiences told the BBC that people of all faiths were ‘often absent’ or ‘satirised’.

A source said: ‘There isn’t a quota where you’re going to have a vicar in every drama, but the feedback from audiences is that often characters of faith are not very well represented at the moment.’

And it is not just drama that will get an overhaul. The review of the BBC’s religion and ethics output said: ‘We will create specific features and content for major festivals such as Diwali, Passover, Rosh Hashanah [Jewish new year], Ramadan, Eid and Vaisakhi [Sikh new year]…we will also explore the audience appetite for specialist documentaries and other archive material.’ The BBC insisted the focus on other faiths will not come at the expense of its coverage of Christianity.

Director of religion James Purnell said he wants to ensure religion is ‘not marginalised, it’s not in a box, it’s the heart of our schedules’. The BBC will also try to broaden the appeal of existing religious programmes by making them less ‘adversarial’ – trying out new presenters of different faiths and ages on shows such as Sunday Morning Live on BBC1, Beyond Belief on Radio 4 and Radio 2’s Good Morning Sunday.

The report adds: ‘We need to reflect an increasingly pluralistic UK society. We want to do more to help people understand the role of Christianity, and more to understand other faiths and belief as well. The challenge for the BBC as a broadcaster is to meet the sheer range of needs as people’s beliefs become more fluid and individual.’

As well as shaking up its programming, the BBC plans to hire a raft of journalists to cover faiths around the world and appoint a senior ‘religion editor’. It will also launch a biennial festival called the ‘Belief Summit’, where religious leaders and experts will explore ‘themes such as the role of religion in society’ and ‘what religion will mean for the next generation’.

The BBC took action after a year-long review found many viewers believe its religious coverage only serves an older, Christian audience and are put off by the term ‘religion’ in programming.