Reposted from Channel 4 Press
Next week Channel 4 will become the first mainstream British TV channel to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer live each morning throughout the month-long religious festival of Ramadan. The call to prayer will be preceded by a short film, Ramadan Reflections, featuring a range of voices, from imams to architects, feminists to a former rock chick, each providing some serious Ramadan food for thought. It forms part of a season of programmes, 4Ramadan.
The atmospheric and evocative three-minute call to prayer (adhan) will be beamed live each morning on television to mark the start of the day’s fast for Muslims. Programmes in the schedule will be cut to accommodate the adhan, as it has to be broadcast at the correct time each day. People will also be able watch it online, via channel4.com/Ramadan, where the video of the call to prayer will automatically play, not just in the morning, but throughout the day, observing each adhan throughout Ramadan at the times set out by the unified prayer timetable.
4Ramadan Season Promo
The site will automatically launch the adhan at same time as mosques all around London will be playing theirs. The specially-shot call to prayer is produced by Watershed, directed by Trunk Films and delivered by Hassen Rasool, considered one of the UK’s best muezzins, and shows scenes from across London.
In addition, on the first day of Ramadan, Channel 4 will mark each subsequent adhan during the day with a short 20-second trail that will remind viewers of the approaching prayer time and direct them to the website. The on-air idents, created by the Channel’s in-house team 4Creative, mirror the online look and feel.
Ralph Lee, Channel 4 Head of Factual, said: “The calls to prayer prompt Muslims to carry out quiet moments of worship, but hopefully they’ll also make other viewers sit-up and notice that this event is taking place.”
The season of programmes, 4Ramadan, starts on Monday 8 July with A Very British Ramadan and continues daily throughout the month, with Ramadan Reflections, a short film each morning and Ramadan Diaries each evening.
To find out more about 4Ramadan, go to www.channel4.com/ramadan
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