HIGHLIGHT: Classical Live Mark Forrest presents works by Bach and his contemporaries and James Macmillan’s setting of the Tenebrae Responsories
Maundy Thursday 1pm, Radio 3
TELEVISION: Maundy Thursday 9.30pm (BBC4) Fiddler on the Roof The musical about a man who is trying to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach on his family’s lives.
Good Friday 8.15am (BBC2) King of Kings The 1961 Hollywood biblical epic, starring Tab Hunter as Jesus.
10.45am (BBC1 and BBC1 Wales) Gareth Malone’s Messiah The choirmaster coaches eight novice singers to perform Handel’s Messiah alongside the Chorus of Wales, the BBC National Orchestra, and soloists.
10.50am (BBC2) The Robe Richard Burton plays Marcellus, a Roman officer present at the crucifixion, who wins Jesus’s robe.
Easter Day 10am (BBC1) Easter Sunday Service The Associate Vicar of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, the Revd Laura Verrall-Kelly, presides at eucharist live. The Vicar, Canon Dan Tyndall, preaches.
11am (BBC1) Urbi et Orbi The Pope gives his Easter message and blessing, live from St Peter’s Square, Rome.
11am (Film 4) The Ten Commandments Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood epic starring Charlton Heston.
11.15am (BBC1 and BBC1 Wales) Gareth Malone’s Messiah The eight new singers prepare for their performance.
1.15pm (BBC1) Songs of Praise Aled Jones celebrates Easter Day at St George’s RC Cathedral, Southwark.
6.10pm (BBC2 and BBC1 Wales) Gareth Malone’s Messiah: The Concert The singers perform in Llandaff Cathedral.
7pm (BBC1) Our Changing Planet: Restoring our rivers The team examine the Klamath river in northern California and the River Seine, in Paris
9pm (BBC2) Pilgrimage: The road through the Alps This year, seven pilgrims travel from just outside Innsbruck on the Austrian Camino and finish near Lake Zurich, in Switzerland (1/3).
Monday 6.30pm (BBC2) Great British Railway Journeys Michael Portillo travels through the Midlands and visits Shrewsbury RC Cathedral.
9pm (BBC2) Pilgrimage: The road through the Alps The pilgrims help each other as they reach the highest point of their trek (2/3).
Tuesday 9pm (BBC2) Pilgrimage: The road through the Alps The pilgrims reach the tenth-century Einsiedein Abbey, with its Black Madonna (3/3).
RADIO: Maundy Thursday 9am (R4) In Our Time Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss typology: a theological theory concerning the relationship of the Old and New Testaments.
Good Friday 12.30am (R3) Through the Night John Shea introduces a performance of Bach’s St John Passion from the BBC Proms last year.
9.45am (Radio 4 Extra) Daily Service The Archbishop of York presents a spiritual reflection.
11.30am (World Service) Heart and Soul How Buddhist monks are using TikTok to spread a message of non-violence across Cambodia.
1pm (R3) Classical Live Sir Simon Rattle conducts a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, recorded last September in the Herkulesaall, the Residenz in Munich.
3pm (R4) Good Friday Meditation The novelist and psychoanalyst Salley Vickers weaves together stories of personal darkness and loss with Gospel readings and poetry by Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan.
7pm (R2) Easter Reflections Canon Kate Bottley hosts a programme that reflects on sorrow, loss, and the death of a loved one.
7.30pm (R3) Radio 3 in Concert Daniel Hyde conducts Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem live at the Easter at King’s festival, in Cambridge.
Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Day 9pm (Classic FM) The Royal Albert Hall of Fame The organist Anna Lapwood explores the musical history of the hall (1-3/3).
Saturday to Friday 5.43am (R4) Prayer for the Day The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, writes and presents six pre-recorded scripts on a spiritual theme, with prayer, on the programme, which celebrates its 55th anniversary this year.
Saturday 7.30am, 12.30pm, and 6.30pm (Radio 4 Extra) The Passion in Plants Bob Gilbert looks at the Easter story through associations with various British trees and flowers (1-5/10) (repeat).
9am (R3) Saturday Morning In a live broadcast from Iona, Tom Service explores music, landscape, and the idea of Easter and pilgrimage.
Easter Day 12.30am (R3) Through the Night A programme of sacred music, including Mozart’s Requiem.
6.35am (R4) Sunrise Service The Bishop of Sodor & Man, the Rt Revd Tricia Hillas, makes a poetic pilgrimage for Easter Day.
8.10am (R4) Easter Sunday Worship The Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, preaches at a sung eucharist, live from Canterbury Cathedral, at which the Dean, the Very Revd Dr David Monteith, presides.
9am (R3) Sunday Morning Sarah Walker presents live from St Non’s Chapel, in Pembrokeshire.
3pm (R3) Choral Evensong Live from Newcastle Cathedral.
7.15pm (R4) Robben Island’s Hallelujah The story of a performance by an 80-strong choir of political prisoners on the island of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”.
Monday 9am (R4) Start the Week What is to be made of the decline of Christianity in England? Guests include the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Anne Hartley.
9.45pm (R3) The Essay: Erland Cooper’s mythic mountains The composer is joined by writer Elif Shafak on an imaginary trip to Mount Qaf (1/5).
Tuesday 3.30pm (R4) Beyond Belief Is “cultural” religion an oxymoron and totally untenable? Canon Giles Fraser and his guests discuss (4/4).
Wednesday 3pm (R4) Choral Evensong Live from St George’s, Hanover Square.
