0:00:02 > 0:00:04Looking at the watch... Right-ho, cue telecine.
0:00:07 > 0:00:1150 years ago, the world was very different.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15The first manned space flight had only just taken place...
0:00:16 > 0:00:20..yet most trains were still powered by steam.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23And television was in black and white.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26Just as the '60s were about to swing,
0:00:26 > 0:00:33a new TV series was commissioned to feature congregations singing in their own churches.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36It was called Songs Of Praise.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44In the first of three special programmes to celebrate our 50th birthday,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47we return to the church where it all began,
0:00:47 > 0:00:51to enjoy the same hymns that were sung in the very first programme.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56Plus, reminiscences from Geoffrey Wheeler and Sir Cliff Richard.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03# Come on, let's twist again
0:01:03 > 0:01:05# Like we did last summer... #
0:01:05 > 0:01:111961, the year of the Twist, was when Songs Of Praise was born,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14at 6.15 on October 1st.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18It came from Tabernacl Capel y Bedyddwyr -
0:01:18 > 0:01:23Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Church - in the centre of Cardiff.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26Well, the world has changed,
0:01:26 > 0:01:30except that hymn-singing is still right at the heart of what we do,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32and hymns don't get much better
0:01:32 > 0:01:34than our first one today,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37with its tune named after the Rhondda Valley,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40and inspirational words from William Williams,
0:01:40 > 0:01:44the writer known as the "Sweet Singer of Wales". Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59IN WELSH:
0:04:26 > 0:04:31And out steps Prince Charles, as always, looking tremendously fresh.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36Songs Of Praise's roots lay firmly in Wales.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41As part of the celebrations following his Investiture in 1969,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46the country's new Prince took part in a programme from Swansea.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49And earlier in the decade, it was a Welshman who,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51by a fortunate co-incidence,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55was responsible for commissioning the very first programme.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Before lunch one Sunday, I switched on the television set
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and, by chance, there happened to be a programme
0:05:03 > 0:05:05I didn't know was going out, in Welsh,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09from a Welsh chapel, in Cardiff, I think it was.
0:05:09 > 0:05:15I happened to watch it, wondering what the devil it was doing there, from Crystal Palace transmitters.
0:05:15 > 0:05:21The force came, I think, from the wholehearted, uninhibited quality of the singing.
0:05:24 > 0:05:29This experience inspired a programme of hymn-singing in English to be commissioned,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33and a producer for the new series was appointed.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36One of my jobs was to find a suitable title for the series,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40and it being a hymn-singing festival, I turned to the Bible
0:05:40 > 0:05:44and to the Book of Psalms, and in Psalm 147, I found this, in Welsh.
0:05:44 > 0:05:50Molwch yr Arglwydd, canys da yw canu i'n Duw ni,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53which, in English, is, "Praise ye the Lord,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57"for it is good to sing praises unto our God."
0:05:57 > 0:06:00And that gave us a clue. It HAD to be Songs Of Praise.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03# Songs of praises
0:06:03 > 0:06:06# Songs of praises
0:06:06 > 0:06:09# I will ever... #
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Many of the early presenters were clergymen,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15and the man who introduced the hymns in the first programme
0:06:15 > 0:06:20was a Congregationalist minister from Aberystwyth.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24I think television had only been in existence for just a few years,
0:06:24 > 0:06:26and the chief image that it conveyed
0:06:26 > 0:06:31was that it was a secular animal, despite the fact that there were religious programmes in Welsh.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35But this was the programme, I think, that brought home to most people
0:06:35 > 0:06:42that this was a vehicle that could convey the most delicate, sensitive emotions of the soul, as well.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21The world often felt vulnerable in 1961,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25with nuclear war seeming a distinct possibility.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30The top news stories included the summit between Harold Macmillan and President Kennedy,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33the building of the Berlin Wall,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37and demonstrations against nuclear weapons.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Not only was the world very different in 1961, television was as well,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44with just two channels to choose from.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48However, there were some programmes WE'd still recognise.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52The Sky At Night has had the same presenter, Sir Patrick Moore,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55since its first programme in 1957.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00If I'd come on the air when we did the first of these Sky At Night programmes
0:10:00 > 0:10:05and said that within five years, I'd be showing you pictures of the first man to go round the Earth,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10in orbit, in a spaceship... Well, I think you'd have regarded me as mad! But it HAS happened.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12MUSIC: "Blue Peter" Theme Tune
0:10:12 > 0:10:17And Blue Peter has been entertaining and informing children for nearly 53 years.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22We will be back in a fortnight's time, when we'll be starting a brand-new cartoon serial
0:10:22 > 0:10:26- about a Red Indian boy, so see you all then. Bye-bye.- Bye.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32Popular programmes on the day Songs Of Praise was first broadcast included What's My Line?...
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Are you, then, a film actor?
0:10:35 > 0:10:38No...
0:10:38 > 0:10:42..and the often-anarchic Sooty And Sweep Show.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44No. No...
0:10:44 > 0:10:49Full-length dramas and concerts often featured in the schedule.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Soprano Heather Harper sang leading roles in televised operas
0:10:53 > 0:11:00like La Traviata, and also took part in the first-ever Songs Of Praise.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03And singing a hymn from that first programme is one of today's
0:11:03 > 0:11:06brightest singing stars, Elin Manahan Thomas.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13# Let us, with a gladsome mind
0:11:13 > 0:11:18# Praise the Lord, for he is kind
0:11:18 > 0:11:22# For his mercies aye endure
0:11:22 > 0:11:26# Ever faithful, ever sure
0:11:31 > 0:11:35# He with all-commanding might
0:11:35 > 0:11:40# Filled the new-made world with light
0:11:40 > 0:11:45# For his mercies aye endure
0:11:45 > 0:11:49# Every faithful, ever sure
0:11:58 > 0:12:02# He the golden-tressed sun
0:12:02 > 0:12:06# Caused all day his course to run
0:12:06 > 0:12:11# For his mercies aye endure
0:12:11 > 0:12:15# Ever faithful, ever sure
0:12:19 > 0:12:23# And the horned moon by night
0:12:23 > 0:12:28# Mid her spangled sisters bright
0:12:28 > 0:12:34# For his mercies aye endure
0:12:34 > 0:12:38# Ever faithful, ever sure
0:12:42 > 0:12:47# All things living he doth feed
0:12:47 > 0:12:51# His full hand supplies their need
0:12:51 > 0:12:55# For his mercies aye endure
0:12:55 > 0:13:00# Ever faithful, ever sure
0:13:07 > 0:13:13# Let us, with a gladsome mind
0:13:13 > 0:13:17# Praise the Lord, for he is kind
0:13:17 > 0:13:21# For his mercies aye endure
0:13:21 > 0:13:29# Ever faithful, ever sure... #
0:13:34 > 0:13:41I am delighted to introduce the man who was the familiar face of Songs Of Praise in the '60s,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45when there were so few TV channels that every household would've known the programme.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49His first programme came from Baden-Powell House in London,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53and he's in Cardiff today. It's Geoffrey Wheeler.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Geoffrey, you were already well established as a TV presenter. You did Television Top Of The Form
0:14:01 > 0:14:04before Songs Of Praise. Did this series feel different?
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Very, very different.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Technically, it was the same - the same cameras, the same lights,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13the same lines to remember. All these things were the same.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18But underneath it all was a more serious purpose. A lot of programmes are done just for fun.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22This was fun, too, but it really meant something to the people making the programme,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24and I think it showed.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Now, many of the programmes were live,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31including one memorable occasion, when Winston Churchill died. On that day,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35you presented a programme from his old school in Harrow. What do you remember of that?
0:14:35 > 0:14:38I remember everything about it.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43I had to get, immediately, from Broadcasting House up to Harrow on the Hill on the Tube,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45and there was a complete standby unit.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48His timing, I have to say, was perfect.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51We knew he was ill, but he died that morning,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55and we were able to go straight into rehearsal for the programme.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00This was a really, really important moment in the history of the nation,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02and we were doing this live.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05There wasn't going to be a second chance. We HAD to get it right.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09# O praise ye the Lord
0:15:09 > 0:15:14# Praise him in the height... #
0:15:14 > 0:15:17I suppose, after all those years of interviewing people,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20of hearing about their challenges and faith,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24- I wonder whether it made an impact on your own faith.- I think it did.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28You meet a lot of people when you're interviewing people,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33but when you meet somebody who is enormously moving in what they say,
0:15:33 > 0:15:39it's very humbling, and you look at your own life, and you think about it again.
0:15:39 > 0:15:45Well, as you're here, will you slip back into the familiar role and introduce the next hymn for us?
0:15:45 > 0:15:46Yes, of course, Pam.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50We've heard a lot, haven't we, about Royal weddings lately.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55Well, this next hymn was chosen by the Queen for her wedding.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00The music was written specially for it. It's a hymn of hope.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven -
0:16:04 > 0:16:08we've a new beginning to look forward to.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52# Well, do you wanna dance? #
0:18:52 > 0:18:57In 1961, Cliff Richard was already a household name.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00# Do you wanna dance? #
0:19:00 > 0:19:05It was a very exciting time, because rock'n'roll was in its infancy. The fact that we had even gone in
0:19:05 > 0:19:08and made records was exciting. The fact that television,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12which was something that we went to my aunt's house to see,
0:19:12 > 0:19:17with a magnifying glass over the front to make it look bigger. Do you remember those?
0:19:17 > 0:19:22So the whole period was a freshness. I know that we'll probably never, ever going to capture that again.
0:19:22 > 0:19:28So, what were the highlight? Where were the performances you remember? Or the awards that were special?
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Being on television, doing Sunday Night At The London Palladium.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37Thank you very much. Now we'd like to introduce to you our vocalist.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39LAUGHTER
0:19:39 > 0:19:41..Cliff Richard.
0:19:45 > 0:19:46# The young ones
0:19:47 > 0:19:50# Darling, we're the young ones... #
0:19:50 > 0:19:52You could have remained very private about your faith.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Instead of that, you stepped out on the stage of the Billy Graham
0:19:55 > 0:19:59rally in 1966, which was quite a momentous decision, really.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03It was so nerve-wracking to get up and speak to these people, knowing...
0:20:03 > 0:20:09There must have been that huge area that they have there for people when they come forward.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Billy usually says to people, "If you want to give your life to Jesus, come forward.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17"This means nothing in itself but you will be met by somebody,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20"somebody will stand next to you and help you make the next step."
0:20:20 > 0:20:25And that space was full of press, so I was terrified.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29So, as a young, enthusiastic, evangelical Christian,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33as you were at that time, was Songs Of Praise even on your radar?
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Er, you know, I'd be working somewhere, anywhere,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39and have a Sunday off, or whatever, be in the hotel room,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43I used to tend to stay sleeping late, and I used to watch Songs Of Praise there.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45And as the concept changed,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49and grew, suddenly you found that you were getting people from
0:20:49 > 0:20:53all walks of life coming and talking about how they received their faith,
0:20:53 > 0:20:59how they achieved that moment of recognition of Jesus being this vital factor in our lives,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03and it was encouraging to see that. For me it was encouraging.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06The tranquillity of the worship...
0:21:06 > 0:21:08'I still think we need to feel there's a focal point'
0:21:08 > 0:21:12for all of us to be able to share our faith
0:21:12 > 0:21:20and...and I hope that, as the years go by, Songs Of Praise becomes more and more necessary.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22It's not just a TV show.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Young ones have been an important part of Songs Of Praise right from the first programme,
0:21:30 > 0:21:36when a children's choir performed All Things Bright And Beautiful, sung now by youngsters from Cardiff.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27The first instinct that a human being has, when he's born,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30it's...the instinct is...sex.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34I'm very glad you make that point, you know, because I hold that strongly.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36That is an enormously important thing...
0:23:36 > 0:23:40In the early 1960s, pop stars debated with archbishops,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and on the day Songs Of Praise was first broadcast
0:23:43 > 0:23:48it was one of several religious programmes on BBC television.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52The evening's final programme, at 10.45, was The Epilogue.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55..and prayers learnt at his mother's knee.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01This was a time when the influence of the BBC's first Director General,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03John Reith, pervaded the corporation.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07..as there was a board of governors over me
0:24:07 > 0:24:12in whom, de jure, all responsibility and authority was vested.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15In many ways you've got to go right back to John Reith.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Here he was, a Scottish Presbyterian.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22If you like, he believed, in the end,
0:24:22 > 0:24:27the most important element in making programmes
0:24:27 > 0:24:30was the producer's conscience.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32That, you know, you can't sit in judgment
0:24:32 > 0:24:36on every one of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of programmes
0:24:36 > 0:24:39that are coming out of, say, the BBC.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43You depend upon the producer's conscience.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48Now, that tradition is really quite part of the spine of Songs Of Praise still.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52So I wonder if those founding fathers would be surprised
0:24:52 > 0:24:56that we're now celebrating Songs Of Praise's 50th birthday.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58What is their legacy in that, do you think?
0:24:58 > 0:25:02I think that any of them would recognise, still, in Songs Of Praise
0:25:02 > 0:25:06the essential elements which were part of its founding genius.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12They might have grumbles about the dancing girls and the guitars
0:25:12 > 0:25:14and that...you know...
0:25:14 > 0:25:18but nonetheless...they would... they would sense...
0:25:18 > 0:25:22that...that the faith was still being kept by this programme.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29It is often said that Songs Of Praise is folk religion,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31and that is exactly what it is,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34because that's how hymns originate.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37You know, most of religion is run by professionals,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40parsons, theologians,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44but hymns are where the congregation strike back.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47You know, the theologians can say a hymn is absolute doggerel
0:25:47 > 0:25:51but if a congregation decides to take it to its heart,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54sooner or later it will end up in one of the hymn books.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02My father, who was a coal miner, didn't have much formal education
0:26:02 > 0:26:05but was one of the most cultured men I knew,
0:26:05 > 0:26:11used to say that the half dozen most majestic words in the English language
0:26:11 > 0:26:14were found in that verse of O Worship The King -
0:26:14 > 0:26:19"pavilioned in splendour and girded with praise".
0:26:19 > 0:26:27And he said that's the best seven-word definition of the majesty of God you will find in the language.
0:26:27 > 0:26:28And I've never forgotten that.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18Lord of life and hope,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22may the assurance of your presence and the peace of your blessing
0:29:22 > 0:29:25give voice to the music of our souls,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28that we may praise you today and for ever.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Amen.
0:29:30 > 0:29:31CONGREGATION: Amen.
0:29:32 > 0:29:37Well, it's not for nothing that Wales is known as the land of song,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39and here in the Tabernacle Chapel,
0:29:39 > 0:29:41where Songs Of Praise began life 50 years ago,
0:29:41 > 0:29:47we take our leave of you now with the wonderful combination of a classic Welsh tune, Blaenwern,
0:29:47 > 0:29:49and much-loved words from Charles Wesley,
0:29:49 > 0:29:54so it's goodbye from all of us here in Cardiff with Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Next week, Aled introduces the second programme
0:33:29 > 0:33:31celebrating our 50th anniversary,
0:33:31 > 0:33:35with lots of magic moments from the past 50 years,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38the most surprising places, extraordinary people,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42incredible stories and inspiring music
0:33:42 > 0:33:46since Songs Of Praise began in 1961.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:34:03 > 0:34:06E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk