On Sunday 24 April from 3.50pm on BBC One, six school choirs will compete in the Grand Final of the Songs of Praise School Choir Competition. In anticipation of the event, we asked producer Karen Hannah some questions about the competition. 

Tell us something you think will surprise us about the Songs of Praise Choir of the Year competition.

About fifty thousand singers have entered since the Competition began in 2003!

Why was the competition set up? What does it seek to celebrate?

Choral Music is at the heart of Songs of Praise but back in 2003 there was a feeling that fewer children were singing in schools and so we decided to test the waters with a competition for Junior and Senior schools. We were amazed with the response and the standard of the choirs who applied.

What music has featured in the competition?

It's ranged from Mozart to Westlife and just about everything in between. For example this year we had a mixture of classic choral hymns and songs in four part harmony, modern worship songs, inspirational music and spirituals.

What is the judges criteria for judging those who progress throughout the competition? What feedback does each competing choir receive after they've participated?

The judges have a tough job. They're looking for a perfectly tuned choir who sing with one voice that really connects with the audience - and the winner has to have the wow factor! Every choir that enters gets detailed constructive written feedback from the selection panel even if they're not selected for the televised semi-finals.

What feedback do you get from the choirs taking part? Why do they want to take part? What motivates them, do you think?

It's a competition first and foremost but there is always a fantastic atmosphere on the day and we do everything we can to make it a positive experience as it's something the singers will remember for the rest of their lives.

The feedback we get from choirs is that they really enjoy it. They tell us that being in a choir is a lot of fun. It's a place where you can make friends and learn about team work as well as experience the sheer joy of singing. We always gets lots of entries, even though we can only select 12 to go through to the televised finals, so it remains very popular!

What does a competition like this do to help sustain choral singing in the UK do you think?

We provide a platform on BBC One for choral singing schools across the UK to showcase their talents. The choir leaders and music teachers and supportive parents are the unsung heroes as they do all the hard work, but competitions like ours are motivational because they demonstrate the incredible standard school choirs can aspire to. We're hoping everyone who enters will be bitten by the singing bug and go on to be life-long choir members.

Who will be singing in the final this weekend? 

Following two competitive semi-finals rounds televised on Sunday 3 and 10 April, this year’s finalists in the Junior Category are:

Lindley Junior School, performing The Lord’s Prayer from African Sanctus
Blackheath Preparatory School, performing On Eagles Wings
Hereford Cathedral Junior School, performing Just One Small Voice

Competing in the Senior Category are:

Oakham School, performing I Want Jesus To Walk With Me
Tring Park School For The Performing Arts, performing Daniel, Daniel Servant Of The Lord
St George’s College, performing Every Time I Feel The Spirit

You can find watch clips of all of the choirs performing on the BBC Songs of Praise website. 

Karen Hannah is Producer, BBC Songs of Praise School Choir Competition

• The Grand Final of the Songs of Praise School Choir competition comes from Sheffield City Hall, with judges Katherine Jenkins, Connie Fisher and Ken Burton deciding 2016's Junior and Senior School Champions.
• Both Junior and Senior School Choir semi-finals are available to watch via BBC iPlayer.

The Reverend Kate Bottley has travelled to Jerusalem for a special programme on BBC One investigating Judas Iscariot and the Easter story. We spoke to her about her experience making the programme and what inspired her to join the clergy. She also shared her thoughts on why she believes the BBC sitcom ‘Rev’ has helped to create a more realistic image of the clergy in the UK.

In the Footsteps of Judas is broadcast on Good Friday at 9am on BBC One and available on iPlayer afterwards.

Why did you want to be a vicar?

I never meant to be a vicar. That wasn’t my intention. In fact I wasn’t from a religious family at all. I didn’t intend to be a Christian. But, I fancied the vicar’s son at Church. So I went along for a snog and I came back with a dog collar. I came out with a husband too – the same chap. I went to church for the first time when I was 14, and then we started going out at 18 and we were married at 23.The rest is history.

I didn’t expect to be a vicar, but what I realised is that I am such a dreadful show off and want to be the centre of attention. Wherever I go, if I see someone at the front with a microphone I always think:  ‘OK, how do I get to do that? How do I get to be at the front?’ So, I went along to church and there was someone at the front preaching, and teaching and leading and I thought ‘Oooh, I’d like to do that. That looks like fun.’ At a deeper level, I was called to do it. There was a sense of vocation and that this is the right thing for me to do. I wasn’t a vicar to begin with – I was a teacher of RE to begin with. There was a vicar at the time who took me out for a curry one night and said ‘I think God might be calling you to be a vicar.’ It was a bit like someone finding out your secret really. The penny dropped and it all fitted together. 

I thought someone would say 'no' to me at some point. You go for all of the vicar interviews and I was sure that someone would eventually say, 'Don’t be so ridiculous, you can’t be a vicar.' Nobody did. I still sometimes expect a phone call any day now when someone says to me, 'Oh, we didn’t mean you.' It’s totally imposter syndrome.

When you say things that make me laugh, there’s a bit of me that thinks 'I shouldn’t really laugh at that thing she’s said because that’s not allowed' …

… because, she’s a vicar?

Well yes. It feels like I shouldn’t laugh with a vicar. I wonder where you think that view comes from?

I think it's because we have a post-war 1950s view of the Church of England. We’ve got this sense of that vicars don’t look like us, they’re completely weird and different from us. I always think it's interesting when people say to me, 'Oh you’re a breath of fresh air, you’re not like a proper vicar.' I am a 41 year old, middle-aged, middle-class white woman who's a vicar. I’m a curve ball.

So is it a view created by media portrayal?

I think Vicar of Dibley did us a lot of favours because it created the assumption that if you’re a woman priest you would be lovely. They also assume that you’re really keen on Johnny Depp and you love chocolate - which is also probably true. They’ll always presume you’re lovely because their frame of reference is Dibley.

But when it comes to vicars in general you’ve got all sorts of images of clergy from sitcoms for example like Dad’s Army, that probably haven’t done much good in the long term. The cultural memory of people is quite long.

Then BBC series Rev. came along – which for vicars became appointment to view television. You wouldn’t phone another vicar when Rev. was on TV. We all thought the BBC had put secret cameras in our vicarages – it was so accurate. It was so close to home. Finally, here was an accurate representation of a person of faith, of a clergy member – a bit sweary, likes a drink, gets it wrong sometimes, messes up, sometimes doubts their faith. A far more accurate image than say the pious Dad’s Army vicar.

What Rev. helped illustrate was that clergy are just human beings. As clergy we’re often in difficult situations where people want us to be like them but at the same time they want us to be different, to demonstrate that sense of spirituality and that distance. It’s about being a normal person and also being the person they you need to be when you’re being their granny.

For me, what it’s about is authenticity. If the person you are is pious and holy, then you do that. But, I can only be the vicar that I can be and I can only be that vicar within the framework that God has given me.

Tell me about the programme you’ve made with the BBC - In the Footsteps of Judas 

It’s so exciting – I’d never been to Jerusalem before, so when the BBC phoned me up and asked me if I’d like to go, I think my bags were packed before I’d even put the phone down.

I think what really excited me was that Judas Iscariot is a person that nobody really looks at. it’s a bit controversial to look at Judas:  he’s a misfit and I kind of like that – he’s not quite what you expect. I wondered whether there was something about Judas that was misunderstood – now that’s not to say that what he did to Jesus was OK – but there’s that element of him where I’ve ended up thinking in the past that I quite like that he’s on the edge. I feel like that sometimes myself so I relate to him in a way.

Obviously I like to think that I wouldn’t have done what Judas did and that leads on to the really important thing about Jesus for me: we all like to think that we’d be Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross weeping over Christ’s feet, but who’s to say that we wouldn’t have dobbed him in for money? That’s human nature, isn’t it? We’re rat bags.

And that feeling didn’t change in making the programme – I still feel empathy for him, which is not necessarily something that you want your Bishop to know – that you feel sorry for Judas.

You said that this was your first visit to Jerusalem. What was your experience of the city?

I was completely amazed by being in Jerusalem. I’m sure I would probably never have gone unless the BBC had taken me, so I’m very grateful for that.

The reaction I got in Jerusalem was the thing that surprised me most. Being a female priest in the UK I’ve experienced hostility, so I expected at best ambivalence in Jerusalem and at worst downright hostility, because this is a religiously conservative place,  a sensitive place, so I was very nervous wearing my dog collar, if I’m honest.

Without exception I was literally and metaphorically embraced in the street. So, I had a group of Roman Catholic pilgrims who ran across the street to talk to me. They’d never seen me on Channel 4 or heard me on BBC Radio 2 or any of the things I get up to, but what they knew was here was a woman who was a priest and they’d never met one before.  And there was a woman who grabbed my hand and put it on her head asking me to bless her there in the street. And that level of affirmation especially from Roman Catholic brothers and sisters was just phenomenal and deeply moving – I could cry about it now.

Lots of people were wanting to speak to me. On the first morning as we overlooked Jerusalem there was a guy on the side of the road selling headscarves and bits and bobs. He came over and gave me a cross and I tried to give him some money and he said to me, 'No that’s for you – because you give so much of yourself to others I wanted to give you something,' and I just thought that was phenomenal. I’d never seen him before that moment.

But it was a place that also broke my heart – because here is a place that the three main religions share a site, Jews, Christians and Muslims - one of the holiest places for those three religions and yet they literally and metaphorically miss each other in the street. You know we share a geography there we share a commonality there, even the same god some would argue, and yet Jerusalem is a place that is completely divided. And that’s really sad because if we can’t get it together there where can we get it together?

What did the Bishop think of your involvement in the programme?

I’ve got a great Bishop. He said 'Go for it.' This was quite a biggie so I thought I’d better have a chat. They’re really supportive because they acknowledge that this programme will probably be watched by more people than will be sat on pew seats next Sunday, so it’s a good thing to do. Dealing also with all those preconceived ideas that people have about vicars as well, so if you’ve got someone who people can relate to but who still believes in a man that was raised from the dead, then it’s a good thing to do.

What did you learn doing the programme?

I learned that they sell Bounty bars on the Via Dolorosa.

I learned that I know more Greek than I thought I could speak.

I learned that a smile is universal language  - that you don’t need to explain yourself when you can grin at a nun and she grins back – it’s brilliant.

I learned that people are kind and patient and lovely most of the time.

I learned don’t cross a nun she’ll elbow you out of the way to get to the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

I learned that most people feel sorry for Judas – it doesn’t matter who you ask whether it’s the Bishop or the woman in the local supermarket. When I told people I was making a documentary about Judas they sort of looked both ways to make sure nobody was listening, and then leaned in and said: “I actually feel a bit sorry for Judas” -  it’s like the thing you’re not allowed to say out loud.

This blog post is a transcription of a conversation between The Rev'd Kate Bottley and Jon Jacob on Tuesday 22 March 2016. 

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the BBC Blog and website

• In the Footsteps of Judas is on Good Friday at 9am on BBC One.

The series isn’t just saying "let's look at 50 years of history or look at the 17th century" – it’s my belief we could have made a fantastic series alone looking at Suleiman the Magnificent (or Suleiman the Law Giver), for example. Instead, we’re focusing our series on who these people are and why their story is told in the way it is. What can we learn from the empire they created and the state that followed it? And what does it tell us about the world we live in today?

The easy thing to do would have been to make a documentary series about how great the Ottomans were, or a film about how blood thirsty they were. It’s actually a lot harder trying to navigate that middle ground and say "well, hang on, in their own time they were considered ‘great’ - by our time they were terrible, but compare them to the other empires around and if you were in a minority that's the one it may be more preferable to be in."

Rageh and I had a vision: we wanted to tread that middle ground. The whole point of this series is that we cannot carry on not knowing enough about this empire. Making this series has only come about because of a lot of previous projects I’ve been involved in, from the first ever documentary on the Hajj, the first film about the Sunni-Shia split, the first on the Koran, and the first series on the life of Muhammad at the BBC two years ago. 

Those different projects have given me a level of programme making experience, helping me understand what can be done and what the pitfalls are. What I know now compared to 1992, when I first attempted to make this idea, is that a straightforward history would not have worked - the contextualisation is very important.

Of course, one of the biggest challenges in making this documentary series has been what do we tell and not tell? This is not a kitchen sink approach to the Ottoman history. It can’t be. And of course, since we've finished it - and we will have had another look at it before transmission – President Morsi is no longer in power in Egypt. We also have to bear in mind the situation in Syria and how that is referred to in the series. In making this programme, the conversation is on-going in terms of what should we do and what shouldn't we do?

Additionally, there were considerable debates about how to cover a subject like the Crimean War for instance. If this was a 10 part series, then there's probably a whole episode on the Crimean War. However, it's a three part series, so there is time only to reference it – by describing how the British and French moved from an anti-Ottoman stance to one of support.

Stylistically too, we made a deliberate decision to make use of a lot of contributors. We have some of the best people in the series, all articulating often complex histories about the period. As a programme maker I'd rather hear from them - you get a fantastic range of opinions – rather than one voice reading a scripted narrative.

Multiple contributors also open out the knowledge too and can result in some unexpectedly interesting points being made in the programme. I met Mary Beard's husband at a lunch for example where he explained he's an expert on Byzantium. I explained we were making this series and promised to get the producers to get in touch with him, which then led on to one of the really interesting insights in the programme: A cannon builder of the biggest in the world at the time, offered his cannons to the Byzantines - they couldn't afford it, but the Ottomans could, and the rest is history.

Producers and researchers can look in as many books as possible and not have that kind of knowledge as quickly to hand as say interviewing an expert. So that's why, on stories like this, it’s better to have more experts on a subject which the majority of our audience will have little knowledge about, than it is to have the presenter wandering around just telling people.

I think there will be communities of viewers as opposed to one archetypal 'viewer' of this documentary. I think if you're a viewer who likes history programming, you'll really enjoy this. If you're a viewer who's interested in the Middle East, you're going to find this fascinating. And there will be, I am sure, viewers who disagree with it. That's the key to tackling a subject like this. There are many ways to tell it, and many ways to take it. 

What I would hope is that a lot of people will come away from this saying 'that was really interesting: I didn't know that' and maybe have a different perspective on what they see around them.

Aaqil Ahmed is Commissioning Editor for Religion and Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC.

• The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperor begins on BBC Two on Sunday 6 October at 9pm.

Anne Widdecombe and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in the BBC One Programme Does Christianity Have a Future?

Since then, we have steadily built strong television content with documentaries presented by the likes of Bettany Hughes, Nicky Campbell and Ann Widdecombe on subjects as diverse as the future of Christianity, forgiveness and the perceived persecution of Christians in Britain.

This year we've really decided to be bold with major offerings on TV and radio. The Preston Passion on BBC One on Good Friday is the culmination of eighteen months of conversations, planning and effort to deliver a live event that not only marks Easter but also sends out a clear message that we take this subject area very seriously and back it with ambitious programming from dramas, to services, to debates and thought provoking documentaries.

Bishop Crowther (Ronald Pickup) and Samuel Horrocks (Tom Ellis) in 'Pilate', part of BBC One's The Preston Passion

Of course alongside the two stand out projects, The People's Passion on BBC Radio Four and The Preston Passion on BBC One, there will be Easter services and programming across many platforms.

I truly believe this is an exciting Easter line up, with something for all our viewers and listeners. I hope everyone will see and hear the passion that has gone into our programming.

• More details about the BBC's religious programming this Easter are on the Media Centre website.

This Sunday at 5.30pm on BBC One the 50th anniversary programme of Songs Of Praise, Songs Of Praise: 50th Birthday Celebration transmits. Fifty years in broadcasting is an incredible achievement.

From humble beginnings broadcast from the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Church in Cardiff on October 1 1961 Songs Of Praise has become nothing short of a national institution and the cornerstone of our religious and ethics programming.

I was lucky enough to be one of nearly 7,000 at the recording of the programme on Sunday 25th September at the birthplace of TV, Alexandra Palace. It was absolutely fantastic to be part of the audience, and also meet many viewers, presenters past and present, and some of those behind the scenes who had worked on the programme over the years.

Songs of Praise surviving and flourishing is no accident; a lot of people on- and off-screen over the last fifty years have worked hard to make it happen. As The Right Rev Nigel McCulloch Bishop Of Manchester wrote in the Radio Times, Songs Of Praise shows "that there really are a lot of good people around." A fitting testimony to the programme if ever there was one.

Whilst attending the recording last Sunday some people asked me about a story that had made the headlines that day concerning the use of date systems BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era). The story, suggesting we had dropped AD (Anno Domini) and BC (Before Christ), was quite simply wrong. We have issued no editorial guidelines or instructions to suggest that anyone in the BBC should change the terms they use. The BBC, like most people, use BC and AD as standard terminology.

But we recognise that it is possible to use different terminology, and that some people do: that is what is reflected on our Religion website. Even though we told the newspaper this, they ran the story anyway.

Just for the record, for our religion and ethics programming on BBC television and radio we generally use AD and BC. It is a shame that people seeking to make mischief should cast a shadow over the wonderful celebration of our Christian religious heritage that is Songs of Praise.

Aaqil Ahmed is Commissioning Editor Religion and Head of Religion & Ethics

• The picture shows Aled Jones, presenter of the special 50th anniversary edition of Songs of Praise. More details on the BBC Press Office web site.