Choral Evensong 100

From cathedral choirs to countless listeners, Choral Evensong has been at the heart of BBC radio for 100 years.

John Escolme

BBC History Manager

On 7 October 2026, BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong marks a remarkable milestone: one hundred years since its first broadcast from Westminster Abbey. Relayed on 7 October 1926, the programme has become the BBC’s longest-running outside broadcast and is widely acknowledged as the longest-running outside broadcast in the world.

Yet the story began before Westminster Abbey. On Sunday 16th March 1924, BBC station 5WA Cardiff experimented with a local broadcast simply titled Evensong, relaying a service from Llandaff Cathedral at 3.30pm.

Over the following two and a half years, similar broadcasts were carried by BBC stations across the UK as engineers and programme makers explored the possibilities of outside broadcasting. Among the stations taking part were Birmingham, Sheffield, Nottingham, Belfast, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Swansea, helping establish a network of regional evensong broadcasts before the launch of the regular London-based programme from Westminster Abbey in October 1926.

On Sunday 16th March 1924, BBC radio station 5WA Cardiff broadcast the first local edition of Choral Evensong. Many regional versions of the programme were broadcast across the UK until the regular broadcasts from Westminster Abbey in October 1926. Image: Llandaff Cathedral today.

Enduring tradition

Over the past century, Choral Evensong as we know it today has carried the sound of cathedral, collegiate and parish choirs into millions of homes, creating one of the most enduring traditions in British broadcasting. From Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Cathedral to York Minster, Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh and the chapels of Oxford and Cambridge, the programme has combined musical excellence with a sense of place that is unique in radio.

Having become a UK-wide phenomenon, interest in how the outside broadcasts were produced grew. The BBC Yearbook of 1929 explored what might be expected if you attended a transmission.

A scan from the original 1929 BBC Yearbook — By 1929, interest in Choral Evensong was such that behind-the-scenes descriptions of outside broadcasts were appearing in BBC publications such the Radio Times and The Listener magazine. The significance of the broadcasts were acknowledged in the BBC Yearbook of 1929.

Loyal listeners

Over the course of the programme’s history, listeners have been loyal and passionate. In 1970, when the BBC reduced the programme to a monthly broadcast, listeners responded with around 2,500 letters of complaint, prompting the restoration of weekly transmissions within months. More than three decades later, proposals to move the live broadcast from its traditional midweek slot again generated strong public reaction, underlining the affection in which the programme is held.

And, for the 70th anniversary in 1996, BBC Television paid tribute to the long-running radio programme with a television special. Author Joanna Trollope, whose 1988 novel The Choir centred on an English cathedral choir and the tensions between tradition and change in cathedral life, was asked to present the programme.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Choral Evensong (1996), Joanna Trollope introduced a televised special from York Minster, Wednesday 16th October 1996, 2315, BBC Two.

Through adversity

BBC broadcasts of music for evensong have endured through some of the most challenging moments in modern history, continuing to bring music, prayer and a sense of continuity to listeners in times of uncertainty. During the Second World War, with Britain under sustained attack, the BBC broadcast Evensong from St Paul’s Cathedral (1941), a service whose recording survives today as the earliest known BBC recording of music of this kind. Even in wartime, Choral Evensong remained a reassuring presence on the airwaves, and that resilience has continued into more recent crises.

As the COVID-19 lockdown forced the closure of churches across the UK, the programme continued to reach audiences through a combination of archive and newly adapted broadcasts, preserving an unbroken connection with listeners until live transmissions returned in 2020. In a year when so much public life was suspended, the weekly service remained a reassuring fixture in the Radio 3 schedule.

Recordings made during Evensong at St. Paul's under war-time conditions. Sunday 31st August 1941, network unknown. Image: The BBC made several visits to St. Paul's Cathedral during the height of the Second World War. Here, Robin Duff, BBC War Correspondent broadcasts live in the BBC North American Service.

Celebration

Significant anniversaries have been marked where it all began. Westminster Abbey hosted the live 80th anniversary broadcast in October 2006 and the 90th anniversary service in September 2016, linking contemporary audiences directly with the programme’s origins.

Now, exactly a century after the first relay, Choral Evensong returns once more to Westminster Abbey for a live 100th anniversary service.

In an era of rapidly changing media, its survival is extraordinary, and the voices, prayers and music first heard over the airwaves in 1926 continue to resonate today.