I’d love Songs of Praise to be cool
Host plans to introduce show to Instagram followers
Songs of Praise is a role I’d do for free because I care about it
New Songs of Praise host Katie Piper has told how she hopes to make the show “cool” by bringing her legions of Instagram followers to it.
And the 36- year- old says it was “God’s calling” that she landed her latest job on the BBC programme.
The TV presenter also revealed how a voice in her head told her not to give up after the acid attack that shattered her life.
Bewildered Katie had stirred from a coma – bandaged, blinded in one eye and facing the awful realisation that she had been burnt beyond recognition.
Twelve long and painful years later – and after 300 operations – Katie now says her belief in religion helped her on a traumatic journey.
Faith has kept her positive during the pandemic, bonded her with loved ones and helped her reach out to others who have suffered tragedy.
Mum- of-two Katie said: “Without sounding too clichéd, I do feel kind of, for me, it’s God’s plan and that’s something I’ve always believed in.
“It’s always nice when you get to do a job that you’re not just seeing as a job, you’re passionate about it. Songs of Praise, in my eyes, has always been an institution.
“I will bring people – people who follow me on Instagram, people who might already have a faith or be interested in it that might not have actually tuned in. So I think that’s quite a good opportunity . Songs of Praise is a role I’d do for free because it’s something I care about.
“I am not out there to change every follower I have into a Christian but I would like to share the positive impact it’s had on my life and make it cool… not dismiss it as something that might be out of date or old-fashioned and make it accessible. There’s nothing uncool about having faith, it’s nothing embarrassing.”
Katie joins a 10-strong team of Songs of Praise presenters including the likes of Aled Jones and Katherine Jenkins. The BBC1 show started in 1961 and is the world’s longest-running religious TV programme.
For her first assignment – on this afternoon’s harvest- themed edition – Katie travels to Carmathenshire to meet Eileen Davis, an archdeacon who set up a helpline for farmers finding it hard to cope.
Songs of Praise aside, there are calls of Hollywood knocking on her door after Katie sold the rights of her book to be made into a film. She hopes Reese Witherspoon might play her in the biopic of her life.
Katie added: “I really love what Reese Witherspoon is doing because she has this great book club, has done these female empowerment f ilms, is this amazing director and actress. So I admire her.”
Katie, who has two daughters, Penelope, two, and Belle, six, says the family listen to religious music and she helps her children recite the Lord’s Prayer at bedtime.
She also asked her husband Richard Sutton to take a Christian marriage course before their 2015 nuptials.
As for more kids, Katie has enough on her plate as a super-busy working mum. She is the face of Pantene, hosts a series on ITV’s Lorraine show and has a hit podcast called Extraordinary People.
And of her dream podcast interviewee, she said with a chuckle: “The Pope on Zoom! Never say never.”