Songs of Praise is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cardiff. It is one of the longest running series of its genre on television anywhere in the world. Presenters and contributors Presenters of the show have included Kwame Kwei-Armah, Geoffrey Wheeler, Michael Barratt, Cliff Michelmore, Sir Harry Secombe, Alan Titchmarsh, Roger Royle, Debbie Thrower, Bruce Parker, Ian Gall, Martin Bashir, Huw Edwards, Eamonn Holmes, Josie d'Arby, Jonathan Edwards, Steve Chalke, David Grant, Bill Turnbull, Sally Magnusson, Diane-Louise Jordan, Connie Fisher and Dan Walker. Guest presenters have included Sir Cliff Richard, Gavin Peacock, Michael Buerk, Pete Waterman, Ann Widdecombe and Caron Keating. Jonathan Edwards' departure from the programme in 2007 was notable after he publicly renounced his Christian faith. The current main presenters are Aled Jones, Katherine Jenkins, Sean Fletcher, Kate Bottley, Brenda Edwards, Claire McCollum, JB Gill, Katie Piper, Laura Wright, Pam Rhodes, Gemma Hunt, James Lusted, YolanDa Brown, and Radzi Chinyanganya. Format Until a change of format in November 2014, the programme featured congregations from churches and cathedrals singing hymns alongside interviews with people from the church from which the programme was broadcast with a exploration by the presenter of that week's theme, all from the same location. November 2014 saw the programme adopt more of a magazine format. The stated intention was to evolve the series to reflect the wider Christian audience across the country. Music remains at the heart of the series, but is now more varied in style, reflecting the broad range of Christian genres in each programme and across the series; there is no longer a single location where the music and stories come from each week. The series continued to be usually broadcast between 4 and 5pm on Sundays; though as of 2018 onwards, it has generally been broadcast in a lunchtime slot. The new format continues with special programmes marking Easter and Remembrance Sunday as well as the popular two Big Sing programmes from the Royal Albert Hall and the School Choir of the Year contest. The more recent Gospel Choir of the Year began recording in Birmingham Town Hall in 2013 and in 2014 was recorded at The Hackney Empire in London. The show has included interviews with Tony Blair,