Sing hosanna! No more Songs of Praise retakes
THE BBC’S Songs of Praise has found favour with church leaders after ending its practice of making congregations sing hymns several times in order to get the perfect television shots.
Previously, programmemakers required several retakes, a time-consuming exercise that some churches found frustrating. However, filming methods have now changed after the BBC lost the rights to make the show in-house. It is now produced by an independent company, which films church services in one take.
A recent episode visited the annual conference of the New Wine network of churches in Somerset. The Rev Mark Melluish, its national leader, had previously taken a stand against the show’s perfectionist tendencies and had declined requests to film there.
However, he said the new incarnation of Songs of Praise is an improvement. “There were no retakes. They were so easy to work with.”
“BBC producers would retake for technical issues – either sound or because someone had done something they did not feel looked right.”
The BBC lost the rights to make Songs of Praise inhouse in March as part of a process in which all shows made by BBC Studios must be put out to tender. It lost out to a joint bid by Avanti Media and Nine Lives Media, which secured a three-year contract.
An Avanti spokesman said: “We have an outside broadcast unit which enables us to film singing without repeated takes. One-take recordings are completed when requested. We really enjoyed filming at New Wine.”
The head of BBC Studios said of the decision: “We are disappointed with the outcome. We take great pride in how we’ve nurtured and developed the series.”