Original subtitles

Welcome to one of the greatest buildings in the world

because for 1,400 years,

welcoming is exactly what Canterbury Cathedral has been doing.

This is a place unique in Britain.

The foremost cathedral of the Church of England

and a World Heritage Site attracting over a million visitors each year.

MUSIC: ZADOK THE PRIEST by Handel

Canterbury's story is the history of England, a tale of kings, saints

and martyrs, bloody murder and battles between Church and state.

For centuries, too, the cathedral's been much more than a building.

Today, 300 staff and 800 volunteers produce

everything from the traditional welcome... Hello.

..to world-class stonework... We have contact.

..and spectacular Christian celebration.

Hallelujah, Christ is risen!

In this episode, Canterbury breaks with the tradition of centuries...

This is totally unique, isn't it, starting a girls' choir from scratch?

The first one in 900 years. I think, yeah, it's well time for it.

Definitely. ..the cathedral's priceless treasures

go on tour for the first time...

I think people will be amazed at the colourfulness,

the richness of this design.

..and the stonemasons embark on one of their most difficult

restoration projects to date.

It's probably once in a lifetime, window, the size of it.

I think if you try not to panic too much,

then things should work out.

Through those who live, work and worship here,

this is the story of the cathedral's 1,416th year of service.

Welcome to Canterbury,

England in stone.

Morning, Frankie. Morning, ma'am.

Never seen you all up so brilliantly. Good morn... Oh, I say! Look!

We need to get some other socks on! Morning, ma'am. Morning.

A month before Christmas, Choir Housemistress Gilly Knight is

getting the boys up and ready.

Zoom upstairs and get another pair of socks, love.

I have to say, it's never usually this quiet.

Oh!

RINGS BELL

Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. Thanks. You're very welcome.

Canterbury's choristers board right here, next to the cathedral,

starting from the age of eight.

It's the same routine every morning.

They go for rehearsal at 20 to 8

and then up to school at 10 to 9

and then we're running then until they go to bed at nine o'clock,

well, between eight and nine at night, yeah.

There's been a community here since the year 597

when a Benedictine monk, Augustine, set up his monastery

to convert the pagans of England.

14 centuries later,

many of the cathedral staff still live in the precincts.

OK. BELL RINGS

10, 11, 14, 16, 18.

Have you all got what you need for your theory exam? Yes.

OK, then, good luck with it all.

Morning!

At the other end of the cathedral,

the lady volunteers are building their Christmas centrepiece...

Ladies carrying models of men!

..a life-size nativity scene.

We have brought out the two shepherds and the shepherd's boy

and Martin will be deciding exactly where they go.

With you.

It looks brilliant.

Just needs a cup of coffee.

THEY LAUGH

He doesn't look very stable.

Oh, Susan!

On Sunday afternoon, you'll be in pretty much darkness.

Boys, you'll have your floppy candles on your folders.

The trick is not to look at the candle but to look at me.

# Come thou, redeemer of the earth... #

The choir is gearing up for the busiest time of the year,

the run up to Christmas which begins four weeks before on Advent Sunday.

# Such birth befits the God of all... #

Well done. Lovely.

So master of choristers, David Flood, gets straight down to work.

'Today's the chance that we get to rehearse

'for our Advent carol service

'and we're about to use the building as much as we can.

'It's the only chance we get to do it on the floor, so to speak.'

We have another rehearsal on Friday, we can't get in here,

there are other things happening.

'We've get to get some of the singing done but at the same time

'it's the movement, especially as we're going to be holding candles,'

they're going to go up and down steps with candles, gimbals,

folders, music, that's all got to be done now.

Turn, you go out to...

No, up, up, up, up. That's it.

But the season of joy for everyone else

is one of punishing responsibility for the boys of the choir.

There's an awful lot to take in all at one go

but as long as the first guys get it right, as long as James

and Henry get it right, everything should go well.

THEY BEGIN TO SING

Advent Sunday will be just the first of 40 services and practices

that David's choir will undertake over the next four weeks.

How are we?

Visitors must wonder what we've been doing.

It looks like an A & E in here at times.

And you notice we have a wire here because when we...

We lost the baby Jesus one year. The... He was kidnapped.

He was kidnapped by the university students.

He was eventually returned

but we now wire him in so he can't be pinched.

Hang on, wrong way.

Right, so they're all over now.

'It's lovely to see it there.

'It's placed so as you come through the gates, it's there

'and all part and parcel of the cathedral and the children,

'the children love it.'

There's the baby Jesus! Yes.

And then there'll be the Lord Mayor

or a city representative of some description. Yeah, OK...

Chris Crooks, the Vesturer, or Head Virger,

is making sure his team get the building ready

for the avalanche of services.

This season, every bit of space is at a premium

so the historic fabric must be protected.

This is one of our real treasures.

This is a very ancient floor, believed to date from

maybe the early 1100s, so we're not normally allowed to walk on it

and in fact for the carol service.

we're going to have to put 200 chairs on it

so actually to allow us to do that, we've got a secret weapon we deploy.

And in fact this is the medieval floor

and what you see on top is a very, very clever photographic copy

which allows us to protect the original stone

but actually to use the space and to have seating on it,

people to walk on it and to preserve it for future generations.

Chris' job is nearly as old as the cathedral itself.

It started as a medieval crowd controller.

This is a virge and in Latin virga,

so virgarius was the rod bearer.

So picture the nave in the Middle Ages, no furniture, no chairs,

no pews, just a big open hall and somebody would clear a path

through the crowds waving one of these wands in front of them

so basically it's a rod with a big weight on the end.

This one has the coat of arms of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury

and this side has the coat of arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

So depending on who we're leading,

we have the virge pointing one way or the other.

Fred, you OK? No need to be scared.

No, you won't set fire to anything, promise.

And the choirboys and fire, always a good combination really.

In the Middle Ages, the monks wouldn't have worried about it at all

but naturally now we have carefully positioned damp tea towels ready

so if somebody does set light to themselves

or usually the person in front of them with their candle,

we can rush into action and extinguish them

before they catch light too badly.

What we're going to do now is we're going to walk

so that you can see what it's like.

So just think how you're walking, don't stare at the candle.

Here we go.

Right, now comes the challenge - we're going to go down the stairs.

Now, it doesn't matter what you've got in your folder...

James, leave it, please, that's the whole point, just leave it.

Turn a page of anything you like and see how you have to control things.

Just hold the folder, don't worry about the candle at all, Fred,

just operate completely as normal.

Tom, I can tell from your eyes you're staring at the flame.

Don't look at... Just look past. That's exactly right.

I usually start with four... If we're got three in the middle there.

I've got three in the middle but I usually start...

If we could have a couple more, please. Yes.

I usually start with four.

Well, we open the doors in three minutes so we try and just check

everything's in place before we open to the congregation

so that everything's ready and we're not messing around

as they're coming in.

Right, what else haven't we done? That's a good question.

In the name of God,

who has delivered us from the dominion of darkness,

we welcome you.

Grace to you and peace.

The man in charge of the cathedral

is the 39th Dean, Robert Willis.

This day, Advent Sunday, is our new year,

the church's New Year's Day.

But happily, in the church's New Year's Day,

it begins a season of preparation, which takes us

up to the first mighty festival of Christmas.

And then we have a chance to relax

and celebrate the human New Year's Day with the nation after that.

But today, very definitely, New Year's Day for the church.

I was sitting in the chapter room, and looked out to see the crib

being put up.

So, Christmas must be drawing near.

So, both a sense of gladness and of panic enters your heart because

there's so much to do before Christmas.

But first, of course, we shall have the great Saint Nicholas Festival.

I'm told I must not call him Father Christmas - he is very definitely

Saint Nicholas.

On Saint Nicholas Festival, the collecting tins are out for the

annual parade, through the streets of Canterbury to the cathedral,

where the citizens take over.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

Come to the cathedral!

And an important visitor has come down from London to join the march -

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It's very nice to see you. I like the tinsel - it suits you.

This is my first Christmas in Canterbury.

It means having to read the instructions very carefully.

It's wonderful. This is quite an event!

Do I look good? Looking good!

There's an extraordinary sense of this continuity for 1,400 years,

back before England itself existed.

It's an extraordinary place, Canterbury, and it really is

he heart of the country in many ways.

It's such an honour to meet you in this first year...

oh, well done.

Oh, the Dean, how are you? Now, aren't we beautiful?!

Have we come a long way?

Oh, Dean, it's so wonderful to be in the cathedral again.

It's good to have you here. It always looks so beautiful.

# Glory, glory, hallelujah

# Glory, glory, hallelujah

# Glory, glory, hallelujah

# Saint Nicholas we cheer! #

I find it very moving, I have to say. It stirs something in my heart

because...quite choking really because this place has such

a warm embrace for Archbishops.

It makes you feel so much that you belong.

In a rather unstable life, it gives you a real sense of stability.

And it's always different. It's like the weather -

you never get two days the same.

May the baby who brings peace to the world bring peace to our lives.

Strengthen us that we might love one another,

even when there's lot of pressure over Christmas.

Amen.

CONGREGATION: Amen.

Archbishops have always been welcome here.

When Saint Augustine founded his monastery, he was the very first

Archbishop of Canterbury.

All that we're looking at is as nothing compared with

the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury set his ministry here.

Because Canterbury Cathedral is the Archbishop's seat with the community

to live around it, say its prayers around him, resource that ministry.

At the beginning of the seventh century, the little wooden monastery

and the things that were being created would have been

quite unlike everything that you see here.

The monastery thrived

and then was destroyed by the Danes and rebuilt again

and then you see how the Normans began to build with stone

but then fire destroyed it again.

So, there's an awful lot of falling over and pick you up

and what you see now is something which is almost 1,000 years on,

in this style from the monastery.

Right at the end of monastic times but the rhythms of that life

were never lost.

You need to thread it through.

How's it going? We cracked a lot on Monday. Oh, good.

These ladies, known as the Holy Stitchers,

meet once a week, on Thursdays.

They're working flat out, making and mending the cathedral's robes

and vestments, in time for Christmas.

This particular chasuble is going to be worn

by the Archbishop over the Christmas season.

He just really wears what's there to be worn,

that's worn by the other cathedral clergy.

It takes time, quite simply, because we only meet two hours a week.

If we worked nine to five it would be different.

It's been much more difficult since women have come in

because they're so short - you can have a five foot four woman

or five foot woman and a six foot five man.

We had to chop off one of these, so we took off a foot...

and it can never go back on again.

Joan here suggested that they should be interviewed by size, as well as...

LAUGHTER

Are you small, medium or large?

Oh, hello. Hello, Cathy...oh, it's done.

Yes, it's done. Thank you very much.

I can take that back over. Thank you. Bye!

I've no idea where we're going.

I hope we're going this way to the library.

Archbishop Justin has been in his job for eight months now

but the man in charge of the cathedral

is still showing him the ropes.

Cressida, hello. Hello. Thanks...I wonder if we've met. Have you not?

No. Cressida, our librarian and archivist, the head of all this

particular facility. Very nice to meet you.

Here resides Canterbury's most important document.

Oh!

Oh, my goodness me!

Singed by William the Conqueror 942 years ago,

it made the Archbishop of Canterbury the head of the Church in England.

This is thought to have been drawn up at a council at Winchester,

on the right.

So, this is the original Accord of Winchester,

which establishes the superiority of the Archbishop of Canterbury

over the Archbishop of York.

And that is signed by the people who were present,

which is extremely rare.

So, all of the signatures, all of the... This side is the real one.

You have here the crosses of the king because William the Conqueror

himself was not literate but below

Archbishop Lanfranc, as you would expect, is actually literate

and so he could sign it.

This is quite extraordinary, isn't it?

I never realised that William was illiterate.

Yes. I assumed that someone would have taught the king to write.

And what is also so passionately interesting, for me,

is the presence of abbots. Cos if you look at this list here...

Yes, yes, yes. ..and it's a reminder that in the Middle Ages,

the bishops and the abbots were genuinely ranked with each other.

Very definitely, and there's that same sort

of similarity carrying on between us that you come

as the visitor of the foundation and

our chief and most respected and listened-to guest.

HE CHUCKLES

But you'd have no worry about the

governing of this place because it's in the hands of the community here.

Who's in charge? How would you explain that?

Neither or both, I think. It depends what you're doing.

It would be inconceivable...

I would find it inconceivable to give Dean Robert an order.

It would never cross my mind.

I mean, not even in my wildest dreams.

It's family, so you don't, in most effective families

or well-functioning families, people...

a member of the family doesn't go home in order to give orders.

They go home to share the joy of being together.

Thank you, Cressida, have a good day.

Under Dean Robert, there are four canons,

who share the workload of the cathedral.

Morning. Nick Papadopulos, the Canon Treasurer, is a new boy

and this will be his first Christmas here.

The Holy Stitchers have been busy for him too.

Then we'll go over it with a fine...tooth comb.

Is that what you use?

LAUGHTER

It's amazing, isn't it, the things you learn? Absolutely!

These are all new hooks that we've put in.

That's good, brilliant!

Oh, excellent! Happy, Chris? Yeah, yeah, delighted.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating over Christmas.

Or the wearing, shall we say.

Put the last few stitches in and it will be delivered this morning and,

Cinderella, you will go to the ball.

LAUGHTER

Gosh!

Thank you so much. So, did you want a name for it?

Cathy, a name tag for the new alb?

Save Canon Clare snaffling it.

LAUGHTER

All defence against Canon Clare.

LAUGHTER

Happy Christmas. Thank you, bye-bye.

I came here in March after six years as a parish priest.

A bit back in history, before I was ordained, I was a barrister,

I was a lawyer.

At the carol services, there are things that I will miss

about being here and not being in a parish.

You know, for the first time in a number of years I will not preach

a Christmas sermon on Christmas Day.

I'll be a part of the procession and I'll be a part of everything

that goes on. I'm not sure what my specific duties are.

It's my first year, remember, and they haven't told me yet.

Every priest needs a lightsaber.

It doesn't work as well as it...it almost doesn't work at all, needs

new batteries.

So, you know, priest or Jedi, you take your pick.

There have been services sung in the cathedral for 1,400 years.

This Christmas, as always, the choir are the glue

that holds everything together.

That's nine, I think that's nine.

Yes, they are excited and when we get to the 23rd, 24th they will be

bubbling and particularly the night of the 24th, but they realise

that they've got to be here, doing a very professional job, in a very

important place and they will have that role really much to heart

and you will find them very focused.

Page four, here it comes and...

I still can't here it. Can I have "rut" can you roll your Rs and...

BELLS RING

It's quite different from what we sang this morning.

They both start with "I saw three ships".

But they're still going into Bethlehem, which is...

As we know, impossible. I still consider unacceptable.

Navigational error.

It's like dressing the Emperor. Thank you.

Very smart.

# Once in Royal David's City

# Stood a lowly cattle shed

# Where a mother laid her baby

# In a manger for his bed

# And through all his wondrous childhood

# He would honour and obey

# Love and watch the lowly maiden

# In whose gentle arms he lay

MUSIC: "The Lamb" by John Tavener

# Gave thee such a tender voice

# Making all the vales rejoice

# Little lamb, who made thee? #

She brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes

and laid him in a manger.

This is a time for watching and waiting for Jesus.

And there were, in the same country,

shepherds abiding in the field,

keeping watch over their flock by night.

And the blessing of God almighty.

# O, come all ye faithful

# Joyful and triumphant... #

You might think that this is the way it's always been at Canterbury.

Unchanging, safe in its pre-eminent position, set in stone.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Through all its long history, this cathedral

has been at the forefront of change.

With Christmas over, it's back to the Herculean task of simply keeping

the building up.

Head stonemason Heather Newton climbs the scaffolding,

which has shrouded the cathedral's great south window since an alarming

incident five years ago.

Well, this story began

on a very hot day in June, in 2009,

when a considerable lump of stone popped out of one of the

principal mullions on this window.

Fortunately, it missed the people who were standing underneath

but unfortunately, it's one of the main access routes

in and out of the cathedral.

So, it meant that we had to shut that door, immediately,

to allow us to start our investigation work.

It must have been really shocking when it fell.

It did land right near a group of tourists.

This is the place from which the stone fell,

that first alerted us to problems with the window.

You can see that there's not just a crack through this

side of the mullion but there's a similar crack on the interior

that's been filled with mortar.

This kind of failure, this cracking

that you can see here is throughout the whole of the window,

apart from the tracery at the top.

Here we are, 90 feet up now, the top,

the apex of the arch to the window.

We're aware of the fact there's been

this continuous cycle of repair to this window.

In 1792, it was totally dismantled and rebuilt.

And they very helpfully left the date here on the face

of the window, for us to see.

But what they did was they inserted

some wrought iron tie bars across the width of the window

and in good faith, they thought they were doing the right thing,

they put these wrought iron tie bars in but they have no-where to move.

So, when it gets hot and it expands,

the only way it can move is to flex outward like that

and it's that that's caused this kind of damage.

It's a bit of a mess!

The entire window, almost the size of a tennis court, must now be

carefully dismantled and rebuilt.

This probably weighs around half a tonne.

We've got 99 in total in the tracery and then,

I think, 100 for the main window.

It's a lot of stone.

Cathedral renewal is not just

confined to the stones of the building.

After 1,400 years, a decision, an historic decision has been made.

For the first time, there will be a girl choir.

We've had choral music at the cathedral, pretty much,

since monastic times.

The idea is that the girls will give us an extra facility.

So, that the cathedral choir can have the opportunity to

occasionally take a little break.

Or perhaps simply to have a downtime

but we want to give them their own identity,

we don't want any kind of competition.

40 girls are being auditioned for just 20 places.

Well, she was very nervous, wasn't she, coming into the room?

I think the whole thing was too traumatic, wasn't it, probably.

It was very, very timid singing.

David Newsholme, the assistant organist, is the man tasked with

moulding the successful girls into an effective singing machine.

This is totally unique, isn't it? Starting a girls' choir from,

well, any choir from scratch!

So, we'll hit our rehearsals with absolutely no idea how that

first chord is going to sound and we've heard so many different

types of voices.

I wish I'd had this opportunity when I was that age.

In those days, girls were hardly allowed in a cathedral,

so things have changed. Good, thank goodness.

These girls will be pioneers, so, yes, they will set things moving

and also, I suppose, the fact that David himself will be directing it.

He will do it with a kind of supervision from me but basically

it's his train set.

But their first evensong will be in just eight weeks' time.

OK, good. Now, stand away from the sides and go "brrrrr"!

THEY IMITATE: Brrrrrrr!

Now, turn to page 12.

We're going to do The Call again but I'd like you to imagine we're down

in that large building downstairs and you need double the diction.

# As it was in the beginning

# Is now and ever shall be

# World without end

# Amen. #

The girls come from a wide range of local schools and experience.

I've never really sung in a choir like this before, ever.

Obviously, I sing in my school choir and things like that and I've had

singing tuition but only recently.

So, I come here and I here all these amazing voices

and I just...it's like a dream come true for me!

Cos singing is what I love and it's what I want to do.

Good - is the end of the phrase

louder or softer than the beginning, Laura?

Erm, softer?

Softer, yes, good guess.

OK, what happens in the organ part in bar 124, Beatrice?

Rit? What does "rit" mean?

Loud? Rit, anybody? Rit, help her out.

Come on, help her out, Abby. Slow down.

So, the organ slows down. This is what happens to the organ.

And then we have got to go "piu mosso" which means what, Saskia?

Movement? More movement, very good.

I've never been part of choir which I've had to audition for.

So, this is quite a new experience for me.

We got letters, didn't we? Yeah. And it was so exciting, especially

since we got letters twice.

We got a letter to say that we got an audition

because at first we had applications.

Say with me, "magination", go.

TOGETHER: "Magination".

That's it.

The way that people will see how the cathedral runs will change, I think,

because...I don't know, I think before it was probably very easy to

look at it and think that it wasn't showing any forms of equality.

And I think now it's easier to argue

that the cathedral is doing the right thing.

# Come, my joy, my love, my heart. #

Is there any sense that you're in competition with the boys' choir?

They're very different choirs.

I mean, I guess there's a little bit of a sense that we're just singing

when it's their holidays and you get through that but even if it is so

they can get an extra day off, it's such an amazing opportunity.

# Who can express

# Who can express the noble

# Noble acts of the Lord. #

Before long, the cathedral's great south window has been entirely

taken down.

The tracery stones from the top have been retained on site

for Heather to judge what can be re-used.

It's doubtful whether we can use this one.

If you look at it, you've got replacement stones

at the front here.

And we've got other piecings in at the back.

So, really, it's only just the very core of the stone that's sound.

You'd have to do so much replacement that by the time you've done that,

you've introduced weaknesses

because you're having to piece those elements in.

There's always, always a debate and there are very hardline opinions,

you know, people who believe that really you should do nothing,

not make any interventions at all.

And the building should just be

allowed to go into a graceful decline.

And then the opposite extreme who say, well, previous generations

repaired, renewed or whatever,

so maybe we should be doing the same thing.

What's the problem with that?

Stone inspector...this has got a whacking great crack in it!

This is a project that will cost

�2.25 million but that's just for a frame that will hold

something infinitely more precious.

So, where is the priceless stained glass?

It's gone on tour...

3,000 miles across the Atlantic

to a city only half the age of the glass itself.

It's been brought for exhibition by

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, under the watchful eye of

Canterbury's stained glass expert, Leonie Seliger.

It's a huge thrill to be able to

show something from medieval Europe,

in a country that has very, very little of medieval Europe to see.

I think people will be amazed at the colourfulness,

the richness of this design.

And fun, I think they're wonderful, so modern,

even though they're 800 years old.

These windows depict the ancestors of Christ.

Dating from the late 12th century,

they were made for the skyscraper of its time.

Please welcome Dean Willis.

APPLAUSE

I begin by saying what an enormous pleasure it is to be here.

Dean Robert, too, is in New York to open the exhibition.

Of the 24 panels that were down, 12 were asked for and the

English government, being a bit mean, said,

"Well, you can have six."

Because they're the ones who insure such a work of fine art.

Here we have Abraham,

the great father of the Jewish nation

and also the foundation stone of the monotheistic religions.

Abraham is portrayed in a very solemn way.

Here we've got Lamech. Not a very well-known figure but a violent man,

who repaid any kind of insult with

enormous passion and violence.

So, here he is with the yellow, which we're told by scholars

is a sign of not being trustworthy

but really being led by your passions.

These old men in the windows have never travelled outside

Canterbury precincts before.

And they've now made a great journey of pilgrimage but what is here

with the ancestors of Christ is a jewel box, which was created

to surround the shrine of Thomas Becket.

So that when pilgrims came in, like Chaucer's pilgrims,

they would enter architectural splendour of great height

and they would be surrounded by colour.

These treasures might never have been produced if it hadn't been

for the event in 1170 that shook Christian Europe to its foundations

and changed the fortunes of Canterbury Cathedral forever.

In medieval England, kings were used to calling the shots on the affairs

of the church.

But when Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket insisted that he,

and not his king, Henry II, would have final authority, he paid

a bloody price for his defiance.

Becket was murdered in his own cathedral by four

of the king's knights.

What have you got to do?

Canon Nick's in the very place.

What's the question?

I'm French. Bonjour.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

Like this, you know?

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

My French is a bit challenged.

This part of the cathedral, which we call The Martyrdom, is the part

of the cathedral, the site where Archbishop Thomas was murdered,

on the 29th of December, 1170.

It's obviously changed a bit since then but we know that the door

to the transept, which still stands across to my right,

was the door that he entered through on his way to vespers.

And he refused to have it bolted behind him.

He knew that the knights were coming,

he confronted them at the palace that afternoon.

But he said, "unbar the door -

"the house of God must always remain open."

The knights were drunk.

Perhaps if he'd hidden for a couple of hours,

the moment would've passed and all might have been well,

but he let what was going to happen, happen.

And so there's a palpable sense here, I think,

that this is holy ground.

This is holy ground, this is where the blood of a martyr was shed.

The power of God has been seen

in the life and in the death of this one person.

And so almost immediately pilgrims are drawn here,

they want to come and touch these stones,

as though that power of the divine breaking into the human

was something that could be tapped and felt

and that the miraculous might come from that moment.

MONKS CHANT

The event is commemorated each year by Becket's successors.

"Unbar the doors, throw open the doors.

"I will not have the house of prayer, the church of Christ,

"the sanctuary, turned into a fortress.

"The church shall protect her own in her own way.

"Open the door!"

DOOR UNBOLTING

CHORAL SINGING

Becket's grisly end

catapulted the cathedral into medieval pre-eminence.

Within just a month of his murder,

stories circulated about the miracles

happening in the vicinity of his tomb.

Canterbury became the destination for hundreds of pilgrims,

hoping to benefit from the holy water

that the monks had strained through the martyr's bones.

Three years later, Becket was canonised Saint Thomas by the Pope

and the hundreds of pilgrims became thousands.

The vast sums of money

donated by them over the following centuries

paid for Canterbury's soaring perpendicular nave

and the stained glass that adorned so many of the cathedral's windows.

These are called the miracle windows and they are the miracles

that were meant to be happening at the shrine of Becket.

Royalty came too on their final journeys.

King Henry IV and his uncle, the Black Prince,

asked to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

# Amen... #

But the news of the Archbishop's martyrdom and sainthood

spread far beyond England.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

INDISTINCT VOICES

Churches took the name of St Thomas throughout Europe.

Canterbury's hard-working boys' choir are on a busman's holiday,

a singing tour to a far-flung frontier,

the Bodo region on the coast of sub-Arctic Norway.

# Alleluia! Alleluia! Alle...

# Ah, ah, ah, ah

# Ah, ah, ah, ah

# Ah, ah, ah, ah, alle...

# Alleluia! #

APPLAUSE

I'm really happy, thank you, yes. It was, um, very good.

That's a hard thing to do. No, my nose is stuck to my face.

Maestro, that was brilliant. My pleasure. Very good.

Really good, excellent.

The Canon Librarian in charge of music, Chris Irvine,

has come along with his wife, Rosie.

He's keen to explore this area's ancient medieval link with Canterbury.

That's brilliant.

This has been my first choir tour

and it's really following up some of the friendships that were made

when a group from Bodo actually came to Canterbury in 2010.

It's all tied in with the story of Thomas,

and it's given the choir a superb opportunity.

Good. Everyone happy? There's a meal for you now, or a snack for you now.

Boys, please be careful with the snack. Don't spill anything anywhere.

Thank you very much. Off you go, please.

Like an army, the boys' choir marches on its stomach.

Ah, salami!

Ham and cheese. I really like it.

Ham and cheese. Yeah.

We've had ham and cheese baguettes like yesterday and the day before. Every day.

Every day of the week.

The best. Yeah. Really enjoying it. Excellent.

This has been the, sort of, the theme of the term.

The whole programme's been punctuated by the provision of baguettes!

Ham and cheese baguettes.

They are absolutely lovely, absolutely lovely.

And they just do the job.

CHATTERING

The day of the inaugural evensong of Canterbury's first girls' choir has arrived.

Girls, girls.

Girls, it's important that we're quite quiet

now for the Cathedral, please. OK?

OK. Girls, when I say quite quiet, I mean almost silent. OK?

I've got Holly and Augustus.

Elizabeth?

Does anybody need any water who hasn't got any?

Really excited, really excited.

It seems like a very short time ago

and now we're all together in a choir and it's our first evensong

but it's really good. But the audition was scary and I didn't

think I'd get in and then, when I heard I was,

I was really, really happy. I was so happy!

And now I'm really excited about the evensong.

I'm really glad I've met, like, all these people, because they are really nice.

There's just enough time to squeeze in a final rehearsal.

And absolutely no talking in the procession.

After two.

THEY SING

Again. Same again. Two, three.

THEY SING

# Amen. #

And if you want to take this path, following it down.

If you want to come right out like that to the edge of the stage.

That's it.

Does anyone want one of these?

THEY CHATTER

Pretty confident, I think. We've had a really good rehearsal.

As you can hear, the girls are pretty excited

and we're just looking forward to processing in through those

gates and seeing the hundreds of people that await us, hopefully.

Just...to be a first girls' choir.

Yeah, for ever, now we can say that we were the first generation of the girls' choir.

And no-one else will be able to say that ever.

Like it feels so good inside, you know,

with all these other people who make such an amazing sound.

The sedate pace of the boys' choir's tour is about to quicken a little.

Look, you're up front.

In fact, things might even get a bit hairy.

We're ready for action!

Here we are. The girls together.

Eternal Father, for those in peril on the sea!

They're all going on a 40-mile boat trip to Gildeskal,

one of the oldest and most revered shrines to St Thomas.

And from here, it's not far to the church.

Right out of the water.

The boys head off in search of food.

For the men, this location is an opportunity not to be missed.

Yes. Right. And then absurd pose. And then The Scream. Ready, and taking...

Ah, fantastic. Just a couple more for luck.

Slightly... Slightly...!

My eyes are bleeding.

Excellent. That's exactly what Munch was after. And one more.

And there, I think. Yes, splendid.

LAUGHTER

I can't believe that!

THREE HANDCLAPS

Hello, and welcome. We shall have some lunch and some eat...eating.

And I'm er...looking forward to your response to the meal.

Dried and salted cod.

We'll just give it a go. I know it's a bit sort of... Oh, my hat!

I've never tasted anything like it before.

But...if you don't like it, you don't like it but, you know,

be polite and just try it.

Do we eat it with a spoon? Yes.

Can we just take a spoon first?

Here goes, guys.

That's actually really nice. I'm having more.

Mmm! That's really good.

Freddie, you idiot!

CHATTERING

A little action we need. Ha-ha!

Blow the candle out.

This is one of the furthest outposts of the influence, or the fame,

of St Thomas of Canterbury.

And in the church, there is an altar, a very ancient altar,

where they think there is a relic of St Thomas of Canterbury.

They think there's a BIT of St Thomas.

Nobody knows for certain, because it would mean dismantling

the altar to find out. Yes?

You wouldn't be able to get away without knowing.

Imagine walking through Customs with a leg on your shoulder!

A leg? A leg! It's not as much as a lag.

No-one knows what it is.

You could just break in to here really easily.

Remember this is a place of pilgrimage and people will have come here by boat, so...

So without dismantling this very ancient altar, which could never

happen, we can't find out whether there is a relic or not

but the main thing is that people believe that there is.

Shows you how important Canterbury is.

It shows you how important Thomas Becket was at the same time.

The fascinating thing about pilgrimage in northern Norway

is that it was not walking overland but actually hopping

from island to island or from, you know, this coastal place to another.

After Thomas's cruel murder, his reputation,

his influence spread an extraordinary geographical distance.

So as far north as here,

and the southernmost Thomas shrine

is actually in Sicily, literally from north and south.

DEVOTIONAL SINGING

The men perform evensong in Canterbury's farthest outpost.

In the Cathedral,

1,400 years of tradition has set to change.

We process into the choir stalls, don't we,

and then we all bow to the altar.

All of that is written on the front of your sheet here.

I'm really glad to be serving today

because it's such a super thing to have the girls' choir here.

My son is a chorister and I've been serving for a long time

and it's a really special day. So I'm very excited to be part of it.

This place is so traditional.

This cathedral has been here for so many years and yet it's

so open to new things and to different things.

They'll be pretty aware that this is an historic occasion.

I don't think I have to add much to that and in fact,

what I'm going to say to them in a moment, is that this is going

to be an act of worship which happens every single day in this

building and they're contributing to the

rhythm of the life of the cathedral so though it is, of course,

it's an important day, I want them also to remember the real

reason that the cathedral was built in the first place.

If you... How are we going to do this? Stagger the new breaks. Yeah.

If anybody desperately needs the loo, now is the moment to go.

ORGAN MUSIC

Thank you very much.

DEVOTIONAL SINGING

We pray today for pioneers of the gospel,

or pioneers in church music.

Convert our hearts, that we may sing to You a new song.

DEVOTIONAL SINGING

APPLAUSE

Well done.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. A momentous occasion. So, I enjoyed it.

Because we were under a bit more pressure,

everyone was singing so much better. Well... We were singing really well.

We were also singing well before, but... Yeah.

It was tremendous.

I've never encountered applause at the end of Evensong,

with everybody sitting all the way up to the altar and the thunder

and lightning as we came through the screen.

You know, it was tremendous.

The first one in 900 years.

I think, yeah, it was well time for it. Definitely.

Same again towards me, ladies. That's it.

We couldn't have missed it because it is a moment in history

and we just needed to be here.

A large majority of people in stepping into the cathedral,

go away saying they've had an experience which has,

shall I say, enhanced their humanity.

They wouldn't have used those words

but it's something beyond just the ordinary.

Now some would call that a religious experience, a divine experience,

and others would nevertheless be moved by the superhuman creativity.

DEVOTIONAL SINGING

Next time, in the run-up to Easter,

the cathedral appeals to charity...

It's extremely urgent. Water is coming in.

We're asking for �12 million.

..but reaches out to help Austerity Britain.

At one point, it's awful.

We shouldn't have people who are relying on donations

of food but the reality is, we do.

And the new Archbishop makes his mark.

Jesus was one of the most controversial figures in history.

And if we are faithful to him, we will be controversial.

DEVOTIONAL SINGING