HOW do you keep an audience engaged with a radio station devoted mainly to adult contemporary music in an age of instant switchover, while appropriately commemorating the most sombre day in the Christian calendar? That was Canon Kate Bottley’s job on Good Friday Reflections (Radio 2, Good Friday). The solemnity of the day was grounds for giving her an extra slot beyond her normal Good Morning Sunday show.
“Of course, it’s an important day for those of us who are of the Christian faith,” she said, introducing the show, “but we’re gonna talk a bit about bigger topics as well.”
I feared the worst, but the programme grew on me as it went on. The music was generally rather different from the typical worship style of an Evangelical Anglican church: more R&B and poppy. It had the vibe of a particularly cool Pentecostal church in the wealthier Black suburbs of Atlanta or Washington, DC. A gospel choir from London covered Stormzy’s “Blinded By Your Grace”. It’s a sign of the regrettable Balkanisation of the Church that this world normally entirely passes me by.
I was impressed by Canon Bottley’s capacity to project intimacy. My mother also died a couple of years ago, and, frankly, I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about it for a million or so listeners, as both she and the rapper Guvna B did quite naturally. Guvna B is comfortable articulating what is clearly a mature Christian faith that has carried him through some bumpy patches in life; but by far the most powerful content was an interview with Esther Ghey, the mother of Brianna, the teenage victim of a transphobic and particularly brutal murder two years ago (Comment, 9 February 2024).
Beyond its emotional intensity, it was also another interesting exposition of the actual religious beliefs of the broad mass of people in Britain today. Although Esther Ghey gainsaid being religious herself, she reported seeing vivid sunset skies more frequently since her daughter’s death. Because pink was Brianna’s favourite colour, she interpreted that as her letting her family know that she was OK.
It is easy to dismiss this, but, remarkably, she has befriended the mother of one of her daughter’s killers, both of whom were also teenagers. Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” was an apposite way to play out the segment.
Radio 4 opted for a more conventional and beautifully produced Good Friday Meditation, at 3 p.m., different in its range of accents, choral music, and arty, poetic content. Samuel West’s enunciation is more old-fashionedly plummy than one would expect from a man in his fifties, and, my goodness, doesn’t he read scripture beautifully?
Yet the content also leaned towards emotionally intense interviews with the novelist and former psychotherapist Salley Vickers. I preferred the selections from Donne and Herbert. None the less, we are lucky that the BBC produces Christian content of this quality.
