BBC One’s popular weekly religious discussion programme, Sunday Morning Live, is being extended to two series per year. Currently fronted by a roster of presenters including Sean Fletcher, Nina Wadia, Rev Kate Bottley and Sally Phillips, the expanded run will enable further opportunities to explore the ethical and religious issues of the day and discuss the week’s talking points.

The extension of Sunday Morning Live means that BBC One’s other Sunday morning debate programme, The Big Questions is coming to an end after 14 series. We’d like to thank all the team at Mentorn for their hard work on The Big Questions and the contribution it has made to our religion and ethics output.

The BBC is committed to showing a greater variety of religion programming aimed at a broad audience, with an increased focus on representing a wide range of faiths and reflecting viewers’ stories from across the UK.

Examples so far include Sacred Islands, a 4 x 60’ celebration of Scotland’s islands, presented by Ben Fogle in a co-commission between BBC Scotland and BBC One; Sunday Morning Stories, inspirational stories of faith from across the country presented by Rev Kate Bottley; and Celebration Kitchen, with special editions marking Eid, Passover and Diwali, and more to come next year. Further commissions will be announced in due course.

As part of its extended commission, Sunday Morning Live will also be put out to competitive tender for production from Northern Ireland, as part of the Charter and Agreement requirement to open up more of the BBC’s TV programmes to competition.

BBC Content will invite pitches for Sunday Morning Live from all producers and a full list of eligibility criteria and requirements for the show will be openly shared with all suppliers. The BBC will retain all Intellectual Property rights for the programme, which will continue to be shown on the BBC, but the tendering process will decide which supplier makes the series.

More information about the tender process will follow in the coming weeks.