TVand RADIO

by Elizabeth Bano
Sunday January 24
6.32 Morning Has Broken Radio 4. Jack Hywel-Davies introduces hymns followed by bell-ringing from local churches.
7.30 Good Morning Sunday Radio 4. Presented by Roger Royle.
7.40 Sunday Radio 4. A look at the week's religious news at home and overseas.
9.15 Umbrella BBC1. A multi-faith programme for children. This morning's programme is about shelter and buildings. Children from Liverpool talk about their new homes in the Scotland Road area and why they have helped people in Africa and Latin America to build their homes.
9.30 This Is The Day BBC1. This programme comes from the home of Graham Preedy in Greenford, Middlesex. The theme is "Jesus the Healer", and the speaker is from the Churches Council for Health and Healing. The programme is presented by Noel Battye.
9.30 Morning Service Radio 4. This service comes from St Mary's Church, Nottingham.
11 am Morning Worship ITV. Service from the Churchy of the Holy Cross, Crediton, Devon.
2 pm Encounter ITV. "Footloose and Cassock Free" Documentary about "cell group meetings" which young curates attend to discuss their experiences, doubts and worries.
6.40 Highway ITV. Harry Secombe visits Bishop's Stortford, an Essex market town with an unusual number of schools. He finds out more about the relationship between children and the older generation and also meets Helen Shapiro along the way.
6.40 Songs of Praise BBC1. On January 26 1788 a fleet of 12 ships sailed into a natural harbour in Australia with its cargo of transported convicts and government personnel to establish a new colongy which has since gown to the present country of Australia.
Songs of Praise visits Sydney to commemorate the Bicentennial of Europena
settlement in Australia. Roger Royle talks to the Revd John McKnight, a descendant of a couple who were transported on the first fleet; he also meets Joyce Clague, an Aboriginal, who finds little to celebrate in this Bicentenary year.
10.30 Seeds of Faith Radio 4. This is the beginning of a new series on the lives and writings of four great men, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Merton, Dag Hammrskjold and R S Thomas. Tonight's programme will study the thoughts and writings of Deitrich Bonhoeffer.
11 pm Choral Evensong Radio 4. This evening's programme was recorded in Rochester Cathedral and includes music especially written for the choir and building.
Monday January 25
3 pm Currents ITV/ Thames. Hope Seely presents the religous current affairs magazine programme which reports on an elect-your-own-vicar scheme in London, homosexuality in the Church of England and has a profile of the Rev John Johansen-Berg, Moderator of the Free Church Council.
TWO BBC gems caught my attention last week. The first on Tuesday evening on Radio 4 was Sisters to Fame. This was beautifully presented by the novelist Susan Hill who based much of her material about this formidable band of sisters on their letters. The Macdonald sisters were daughters of a Methodist minister but they escaped the suffocation of Victorian times and made extraordinary marriages. One married Burne-Jones, another married pre-Raphaelite painter and later President of the Royal Academy, Poynter. One was the mother of Rudyard Kipling, (although family recollections of his tempestuous childhood visits were not flattering) and a fourth sister was the mother of Stanley Baldwin. All had been simply educated but their character and temperament allowed them enormous influence over influential men.
QED on Wednesday BBC2 gave us a delightful history of the nylon stocking through the life of the inventor of nylon, Wallace Carothers. The programme skilfully combined old film with drama recreation and succeeded in making chemistry alive and exciting.