A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

[TheTecknician]

A reminder that this will be broadcast live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve. 3pm on Radio 4.

I always listen to this while doing Christmas cooking prep, it's the true start of Christmas, the singing is so beautiful.

Christmas for me starts with this broadcast and finishes when I return home from the pub a few hours later. I hope it is more worthwhile and fulfilling for folk generally!

Me too. Usually making the fish pie for dinner that night.

Starting in a few minutes.

The choir's singing was incredibly beautiful and the organ playing was fantastic. I would love to go there one Christmas Eve.

That service is ticket only and I think it's only open to King's fellows, students and alumni. But during the university terms, the same choir sings Evensong almost every day and you can just walk into the Chapel. Also St John's, a short walk away, and Trinity, in between, both have world class choirs too.

I'm watching the televised version if anyone else is?

I am! It’s when Christmas truly begins for me.

Same here!

Me too. It is absolutely a dream of mine to go one year. Once all the DC are up and away and perhaps spending time with respective in-laws it’ll happen. (We live nowhere near) We have a friend who is a former scholar, choir member and some kind of music director (can’t remember his exact title) and he has said he’ll get me tickets when the time eventually comes that we can go

Watching it now. Its my Christmas Eve ritual. I love seeing it as well as hearing it so always watch the televised broadcast.

Yes, I love it when the camera pans around the chapel to show the intricate ceiling and windows. So atmospheric.

No girls/women in the choir. They sound lovely but still...

A friend is one of the BBC's outside broadcast managers, and the TV version is one of his. It's actually recorded much earlier in the year, as you can see when the cameras show the windows - it's not dark enough for now.

I think King's is now the last college choir with no women. St John's has a couple of female altos, and the treble line is starting to be mixed sex too. Possibly Christchurch Oxford is still all-male, I'm not sure.

This year it was filmed on 13th Dec - I was in the congregation!

How lovely! Do you have a connection to Kings College? Is it all very rehearsed or does it flow like a normal church service?

One of our DC was involved so we were allocated tickets. The service flowed as normal (without any breaks) and then there were some short retakes for the congregation - mainly getting us to stand up together!

Even if you never get to Evensong or any service there, the chapel is a beautiful building worth visiting.

Can I confess I don’t listen to it live sometimes? The thought of that first choirboy starting to sing actually makes me too nervous 🤣.

But that is fascinating, @SqueakyDinosaur and @RelevantSherbert. So the tv version is filmed earlier and anyone can go providing they’ve got tickets, and the radio version at 3pm is live and you have to be invited especially? What about the queue on Christmas Eve for tickets? Did that stop for Covid and never resumed again?

So is that 5pm weekdays?

It's so lovely - on TV and radio. Such an amazing choir.

Years ago when I was at boarding school in Somerset we filmed an Easter Songs of Praise in November at Wells Cathedral... I lost count of how many times the donkey came into the cathedral and how many times we sang "Ride on ride on in majesty!!

Ah, the magic of TV! They have large floodlights outside to show the stained glass to best effect.

As @RelevantSherbert says, it’s normally filmed earlier in December. I think it’s always when the undergraduate term has finished. Years ago they did an Advent Carol Service for students, and probably still do.

They also do a ticketed service for local schools which is very similar to the Christmas Eve one, almost a dress rehearsal. I’ve been a couple of times as a teacher: it’s beautiful.

The start of Christmas for some Cambridge residents - when the BBC vans are parked outside King’s. There are at least a couple of pictures on the “A Cambridge Diary” group on Facebook, but I don’t want to copy them here as I don’t understand the copyright issues.

There’s a chapel Card published each term which tells you exactly when the services will be, plus who’s singing them and what the music will be.

Last term’s is linked from here. The choral scholars = sung by the adult men, not the boys. King’s Voices is a mixed choir, women and men, who sing on Mondays.