The Sunday Hour
The Sunday Hour (formerly Sunday Half Hour from 1940 to 2013) is a long-standing show broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in the United Kingdom, first broadcast on 14 July 1940.[1]
It is currently broadcast on Sunday mornings between 6:00am and 7:00am, although for most of its life it occupied a Sunday evening slot, latterly between 8:30pm and 9:00pm. The show focuses on Christian hymns and prayer, and is one of only two remaining Christian-based shows on Radio 2, the other being Good Morning Sunday.
For its first fifty years, a large number of presenters took part, and the entire show was hosted from a different church each week. From September 1990, the format changed so that the show was presented by a regular presenter from the studio, with recordings of hymns, some sung by a "featured choir", inserted between the discussion, prayers and dedications. Each week the show is centred on a specific theme: an event in the Church calendar, a passage of the Bible, or a more general area such as the family or the importance of carers. The longest-serving of the regular presenters was Roger Royle, an Anglican priest, who presented the show between September 1990 and April 2007. Brian D'Arcy, a Passionist priest from Northern Ireland, took over as presenter in April 2007. Diane-Louise Jordan is the current presenter, having replaced Father Brian in February 2012.[2]
From 20 January 2013, the show was extended to an hour, and moved to a new slot from 6:00am to 7:00am on Sunday mornings. The programme's name was changed to The Sunday Hour. Singer Michael Ball took over the Sunday evening slot with a new two-hour show.[3]