A BISHOP and a Member of Parliament discussing marriage; the history of a pre-Conquest church; information about pilgrimages to Lourdes. These are some of the things viewers will see in ABC’s religious programme, Living Your Life, during the next few weeks.

A wide diversity of subjects to include under the heading religion. But this will be an informal, informative, hard-hitting and sometimes controversial TV programme. It reaches a greater public; it brings religion into the lives of non-churchgoers.

Man behind the programme is 31-year-old Tom Singleton. His qualification for producing this series is that he studied theology at school, was active in the Methodist church and a member of the YMCA.

He has, however, no doctrinaire outlook. “I think that is perhaps a good thing,” he said, explaining that subjects were chosen to appeal to every denomination.

Certainly Tom Singleton is not biased. He has had programmes devoted to Roman Catholic interests — Douglas Hyde, ex Communist turned Roman Catholic, was interviewed. He gave extra time to a Methodist programme when German pastor Martin Niemoller was speaking in Manchester.

On another programme he got four young Church of England clerics to discuss their training. He has gone outside the Church to discuss moral problems of young people in industry.

Tom Singleton is a man with a fund of new ideas, inquisitive about religion and sympathetic towards human problems. These, allied to his knowledge of television, are the reasons why he handles his programmes in such an interesting way. He was born in Old Trafford, Manchester, near the famous cricket ground. At 18 he joined the Army. Broadcasting came into his life when, with the Indian Army, he began taking part in Forces programmes.

Five years later he was demobilised – but be carried on Forces broadcasting as a civil servant. Later he joined the British Forces Network in Germany, after which he was appointed Programmes Officer for the Forces Network in the Middle East.

Lively, broadminded Singleton left this post to join ABC just before the Midlands opening. Living Your Life is not his only work for the company — he is also Head of Presentation.

He is married and has two young children. He writes books and plays. He wrote The Gloves, a play which starred Dennis Price and Betty McDowall on television.

One of his plans is to show the changing face of church architecture. This begins on February 9 when, in the first programme about the parish church, ABC cameras go to Wootton Wawen, between Birmingham and Stratford-on-Avon, to study the pre-Conquest church of St Peter’s. The earliest record goes back to AD 723.

The late George Gilbert Scott described St Peter’s as “an epitome in stone of the English Church and Nation.”

Tom Singleton told me: “We will not concentrate on individual churches after this programme, but will describe different facets in the architecture of other beautiful churches in the North and Midlands.”

The post New plans for ‘Living Your Life’ appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.

LIGHTS dim in ABC’s Didsbury studios. The electric clock points to after midnight. The stars, the extras and most of the cameramen and technicians have gone home.

One man walks alone through the main glass doors and says “Goodnight” to the red-coated commissionaire.

The Rev Eric Geddes’ Sunday has begun.

For 15 months Mr Geddes has been giving Epilogues at the end of the ABC Saturday and Sunday programmes — five minute talks on living with God’s help. His are words that have brought comfort to many viewers.

Speaking before the cameras means more work for Mr Geddes, for his task does not end when he removes his make-up. Viewers write him many letters; some to thank him for his words, others to ask for advice. Many want to see him, saying they would prefer to discuss a problem with him — a friendly stranger — than with their local priest.

But they seldom call on a Sunday. Like other pastors. Mr Geddes conducts four services at his own church — St Marks, Gorton … the church whose football club became Manchester United.

This extra television work does not mean that Mr Geddes neglects his parish or parishioners. He is always “at home” to them; he visits and helps them. Television means he works harder, longer hours than the average priest. But he does not begrudge a moment.

When Mr Geddes leaves the studio in the early hours of Sunday morning he takes with him a recording of his Epilogue, which he plays back in the book-lined drawing-room of his home. Then he gets four or five hours’ sleep before he is up again to take the early morning service at his church, five minutes’ walk from his home.

Outside, it is not a beautiful church. But the interior is pleasing. It stands among rows of tiny, grimy houses in which live, says Mr Geddes, some of the best people he has met. The area is a change for him and his wife. They moved to Manchester from a Norfolk village.

After the early service Mr Geddes goes home for a short break before Matins. He does not write his sermon; he thinks of his subject and when he reaches the pulpit he speaks from the heart.

There are usually four or five baptisms before he leaves for lunch. Then there is a children’s afternoon service to conduct before he can read the day’s news. He does this because he likes his television Epilogues to be topical. They are not scripted. Mr Geddes speaks off the cuff.

At one time he had to arrive at Didsbury early in the evening to rehearse his talk. “As I wasn’t working from a script I used to find that difficult,” he told me. “I could never be quite sure whether 1 had said something at the beginning of my talk or during the rehearsal.”

So now it is several hours after Sunday evening service that Mr Geddes makes his way to Didsbury — arriving an hour before he is due to appear, to give him time for make-up.

It is again after midnight when Mr Geddes leaves the studio after his Sunday night telecast. He has a busy week before him. I asked him whether he was nervous in front of the cameras and how he managed to think of something new and interesting to say each time. “I’m not nervous,” he replied. “And many of the things I say are related to personal experiences … the stories one can tell most vividly are of things that happen to oneself.”

The post There’s so much behind that five-minute Epilogue appeared first on THIS IS ABC WEEKEND from Transdiffusion.