Morning Worship

[Arran]

Every Sunday morning ITV used to broadcast a televised Anglican church service. A total of 52 episodes a year with a different church every time.

Morning Worship was less of a television programme and more of a national institution. Everybody knew it existed but who exactly watched it?

I was once talking to an ITV cameraman who used to video Morning Worship. He was part of the same team who videoed football matches on Saturdays then stayed in a hotel overnight. Therefore churches in close proximity to football grounds were more likely to be selected for Morning Worship than those far away.

Morning Worship 'died' because it was unprofitable for ITV. It was shown without any commercial breaks, then ITV was left with a video recording that had little commercial value.

[angliaknight]

Re: Morning Worship

I think also the same team that filmed the wrestling for Saturday afternoons shot the church service as well, remember we also had the Epilogue last thing at night before closedown and the "god slot" on Sunday evenings which at the time was compulsory.The last god slot ratings winner was STARS ON SUNDAY.

[Richard1978]

Re: Morning Worship

I've heard the outside broadcasts on Multi Coloured Swap Shop were made by the same camera crews who would be covering football games for Match Of The Day the same day.

[Arran]

Re: Morning Worship

Highway filled the Sunday evening God slot but it was a bit before my time.

Religious programmes on ITV is a concept fraught with controversy.

[angliaknight]

Re: Morning Worship

God slot was dreary, poetry readings on "Rain on the leaves", Jean morton with "Tingha and tucker" and a long forgotten very strange series called "Pilgrims progress" which is best described as sureal abstract drama.look thru old 1960s tv times to get a feel of tv between 6.00pm and 7.25pm.

[catflap]

Re: Morning Worship

I remember telling my Dad that there was a war film on he was missing when I saw it in the TV Times - I thought it was Morning Warship.

[Arran]

Re: Morning Worship

Nobody has answered my question about who exactly watched Morning Worship?

From today's perspective Morning Worship was undeniably an oddball programme. Did any other countries ever televise church services on a weekly basis then show them on a main channel?

[darren]

Re: Morning Worship

I never did i was never up early enough.

Id imagine other countries did or do still do it.
Actually i think the republic of ireland have such a programme.

A programme like this should not be about making profit.

nobody has answered my question about who exactly watched morning worship?

From today's perspective morning worship was undeniably an oddball programme. Did any other countries ever televise church services on a weekly basis then show them on a main channel?

[angliaknight]

Re: Morning Worship

The people who watched this would be i guess more elderly folk who enjoyed the service on a Sunday morning without going out to church, "Songs of praise" is still running.
As a commercial venture if you channel surf thru your sky dish you'll find loads of religious stations catering for this need, Benny Hinn is the most outrageous character with his healing campaigns attracting thousands of followers and even more "donations" worldwide.Some interesting info' can be found on this guy by googling him.
Morning worship will appear normal compared to Benny Hinn's "this is your day".

[Arran]

Re: Morning Worship

It superficially seems strange why ITV was tasked with broadcasting Morning Worship rather than the BBC as part of its public service obligation. Could it have had something to do with the way that ITV was regional which made it much easier to televise church services throughout the whole of Britain if the task was shared between every ITV company? For example, Border Television could easily televise a church service in a quaint Cumberland village that the BBC doesn't even know exists, or if they did, sending a cameraman to it would be like sending a cameraman to Mars!

I had a deep think about who would have watched Morning Worship which ended in the following conclusions:

1. A small handful of armchair types who enjoy looking at different churches and their Sunday services but they would never regularly attend church themselves.

2. People who regularly attend church services but are unable to do so that day because of illness or their transport is not available. I can visualise them in their living rooms standing up and singing hymns at hymn time then sipping wine at communion time.

Am I more or less correct?

[angliaknight]

Re: Morning Worship

Yes more or less,and there was a requirement for a certain number of hours allocated to religious broadcasts, as well as limitations to broadcasting hours in general,plus a limit on the quantity of U.S. shows etc, of course everything now is deregulated.
Don't know if ITV were tasked with airing M W perhaps it was their idea to do it anyway, sandwiched between adult education progs on a Sunday morning, what else could they put out? its obviously low budget to record anyway,and bearing in mind the audience available at that time of day on a Sunday back then, it seems a good money saving option.
Back in the '60s early '70s daytime tv was very much a wasteland, people watched tv at night not in the day, radio was the choice.

[Richard1978]

Re: Morning Worship

Yes more or less,and there was a requirement for a certain number of hours allocated to religious broadcasts, as well as limitations to broadcasting hours in general,plus a limit on the quantity of U.S. shows etc, of course everything now is deregulated.
Don't know if ITV were tasked with airing M W perhaps it was their idea to do it anyway, sandwiched between adult education progs on a Sunday morning, what else could they put out? its obviously low budget to record anyway,and bearing in mind the audience available at that time of day on a Sunday back then, it seems a good money saving option.
Back in the '60s early '70s daytime tv was very much a wasteland, people watched tv at night not in the day, radio was the choice.

It was mostly schools & "household hints" programmes in the mornings, & with only a couple of pre-school childrens shows around lunchtime, with a soap or 2.

[Arran]

Re: Morning Worship

Morning Worship was first broadcast in 1958 and it could originate from the religious morality at the time.

The Sunday evening God slot was created as a consequence of the social practice in the early to mid 20th century of attending Sunday evening church services. In the 1950s the Post Office regulated all forms of communications (even holding power and authority over the BBC) issued an instruction that television channels must close down for about an hour on Sunday evenings because otherwise it could result in a sharp fall in church attendance. After a lot of arm wrenching by ABC (which held the weekend franchise in the Midlands, North West, and Yorkshire) a compromise was reached where ITV could broadcast during this time providing that it showed religious programmes - and so the God slot was born.

There was also legislation where no television programmes for children, or those that would appeal to large numbers of children, could be broadcast on a Sunday afternoon because they were supposed to be at Sunday school.

[angliaknight]

Re: Morning Worship

When the limit to broadcasting hours was relaxed,early '70s iirc, "Rainbow" "first report" news,Emmerdale farm, crown court, magazine shows for women Houseparty, afternoon plus, but the shows i liked the best were "Junkin" "Looks familiar" and "the amazing world of Kreskin", even the wrestling got a midweek lunchtime look in.

[Arran]

Re: Morning Worship

ITV companies rarely archived Morning Worship because they had no plans on repeating an episode. It was broadcast live and recorded onto reel to reel video tape. The only reason for recording it was in case they had to resolve complaints from viewers. About two weeks later the tape was recorded over. One ITV company had every episode they produced in their archive on VHS video tape recorded at home by one of the cameramen.

It was quite common for ITV companies not to archive minor programmes but unlike the BBC they have saved most of the popular networked programmes.