How to watch Carols from King’s College on BBC this Christmas
One of the most loved traditions of Christmas are the festive carols and no one does it quite like King’s College Choir. There is nothing quite like to snuggling up on the sofa on Christmas Eve, Bailey’s or eggnog in hand waiting for the famous carol service to start. The University of Cambridge’s world-renowned King’s College Choir performs on Christmas Eve every year on the BBC.
Broadcast worldwide, the performance has played an important role in kicking off Christmas[1] for many households across the country for many years. First held in King’s College Chapel in 1918, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was initially broadcast by the BBC[2] ten years later in 1928. Since 1930 it has been broadcast live every year on Christmas Eve, with the exception of 2020 when a pre-recorded service was broadcast due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although it is broadcast every single year on the BBC, it is of course performed live right here in Cambridge. Taking place on Christmas Eve, the Choir will come together in the candlelit King’s College Chapel at 3pm.
Boys from King’s College choir rehearse at King’s College chapel in Cambridge (Image: Chris Radburn/PA)
Tickets for this year’s A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s[5] were allocated by public ballot and tickets are distributed in advance to those who are successful in the annual ballot. But no one misses out as it will be broadcast live across the BBC.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on December 24 at 3pm (10:00 EST or 07:00 PST). The service is also broadcast at 1pm on Radio 3 on Christmas Day, and at various times on the BBC World Service. In the United States, the service is distributed by American Public Media and is broadcast by over 400 radio stations.
Following tradition again, Carol’s from Kings will air on BBC Two on Christmas Eve, December 24, at 6.40pm, and on Christmas Day, December 25, at 9am. The BBC says the service will be: “A celebration of Christmas from the candlelit chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, led by the dean, the Reverend Dr Stephen Cherry, with the world-renowned choir under the direction of Daniel Hyde.” King’s College has revealed that this year a new work has been commissioned for the Christmas Eve service.
Cheryl Frances-Hoad has written ‘The Cradle’, a setting of an English translation by Robert Graves of an anonymous seventeenth century Austrian text.
References
- ^ Christmas (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ BBC (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ I visited Botanic Garden’s first winter light trail and it was so cold the fountain iced over (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ Historic steam engine Flying Scotsman set to travel through Cambridgeshire (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ King’s (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ Hundreds embrace festive spirit at Cambourne Christmas Market (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)