BBC Choral Evensong Broadcasts

Next year marks the centenary of BBC Choral Evensong. The programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1926 (from Westminster Abbey) and it’s the BBC’s longest-running outside-broadcast programme. I first sang on Radio 3’s Choral Evensong on Wednesday 5 July 1972. I was a chorister at Lichfield Cathedral at the time, and this was a serious landmark in my young life. I found the whole experience thrilling, not least the presence of all of the BBC’s recording gear. Indeed, it was on that day that I decided that I wanted to be a BBC sound engineer when I grew up. A decade later, I did exactly that (I mean become a sound engineer, not grow up, obviously), and I spent seven enthralling years working as a BBC Studio Manager, splicing magnetic recording tape, rigging microphones, and operating mixing desks, which appeared very modern at the time – some of the equipment that I worked with is now on display in the Science Museum!

After my voice broke, I was able to broadcast a couple of Choral Evensongs with my school choir, and as an undergraduate in Oxford I broadcast a few more. Memorably, in 1981, one of our live broadcasts from New College Chapel was punctuated at points by the producer – the legendary (now 91 years old) Barry Rose – scampering in and out during the course of Evensong to cut every piece of spoken liturgy that he could, since an over-run was on the cards. For a while in those days, Choral Evensong was broadcast on Radio 4 (not Radio 3), and it would have been unthinkable to delay the start of the PM programme, so our broadcast was more or less a concert of sacred music, which finished even without a final blessing.

I’ve lost count now, but I’ve sung on about a dozen, and conducted over sixty BBC Choral Evensongs. And yet I never get blasé about the experience. The ones which are broadcast live remain as terrifying as they were when I was eleven years old, and the ‘recorded as live’ not much less so. But what gets me every time is feeling part of this long tradition, whereby our national broadcaster insists, on a weekly basis, that the choral endeavours of cathedrals, abbeys, minsters, colleges, and parish churches should be broadcast for all to hear.

For the last three years, St Luke’s Choir has been part of this magnificent BBC tradition. In 2023 we broadcast Choral Evensong on St Luke’s Day, and in October 2024 we broadcast Choral Evensong to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the consecration of St Luke’s. On Thursday 11 December, the BBC will be back again to record Choral Evensong in St Luke’s – and, as last year, there will be three trombones to supplement the organ. But this time there’s a twist: it won’t be Choral Evensong, but an Epiphany Carol Service, to be broadcast on Wednesday 7 January 2026 in the Choral Evensong slot. So, please come along to swell the ranks of the congregation (and join in with the hymn singing) on 11 December. Turn up well before 7.30 pm (when the service starts); latecomers will not be admitted, for obvious reasons.

Jeremy Summerly

Photo caption:

St Luke’s Vestry makes a serviceable monitoring room for BBC Radio 3.