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Cornish Christmas

Sir Cliff Richard performs his new festive song, and poet Lemn Sissay talks about making Christmas special for hundreds of young people.

Aled Jones visits Mousehole in Cornwall to make a traditional Star Gazey Pie with Michelin-starred chef Chris Eden and to hear about the legend of Tom Bawcock, the heroic Cornish fisherman who saved the village from starvation.

Sean Fletcher talks to Sir Cliff Richard, who is celebrating 60 years in showbusiness and who performs his brand new Christmas song. Poet Lemn Sissay, who was fostered and later spent time in a children's home, tells Sean about the Christmas dinners he puts on each year for young people who have been through the care system and might otherwise be alone on Christmas Day.

There are also favourite carols and performances from Fisherman's Friends and Mevagissey Male Voice Choir, all from St Pol de Leon Church in Paul. Carols include Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, The First Nowell and O Little Town of Bethlehem.

Music:
The First Nowell from St Pol de Leon Church, Penzance
Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy from St Pol de Leon Church, Penzance
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear from St Pol de Leon Church, Penzance
While Shepherd's Watched Their Flock by Night from St Pol de Leon Church, Penzance
The Miracle of Love performed by Sir Cliff Richard at Wilton's Music Hall, London
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing from St Pol de Leon Church, Penzance.

34 minutes

Stories

History of Tom Bawcock
Every year on the 23rd of December thousands of people come to the village of Mousehole for the Tom Bowcock’s Eve Festival.  It’s a community event to celebrate a legendary story of an extraordinary act of bravery, of a fisherman setting sail in a terrible storm to save the villagers from starvation. The story of Tom Bowcock also has deeper implications for a Christian audience, and we explore that with Cornish Culture Expert Simon Reed, and Revd. Andrew Yates.

Lemn Sissay’s Christmas Dinners
Lemn Sissay is a successful poet, writer and he’s the Chancellor of the University of Manchester.  He has written about his own experience of being fostered as a baby and then put into a children’s home when he was 12.  For the last five years Lemn has organised Christmas Dinners across the country for young people who have recently left the care system.  He met Sean Fletcher to tell him all about it.

Star Gazey Pie
Michelin Star Chef Chris Eden bakes a Star a Star Gazey pie, integral to the Tom Bowcock Eve Festival, with help from Aled Jones.

Sir Cliff Richard
One of our best-loved entertainers and Christian Ambassadors, the legendary Sir Cliff Richard, met Sean Fletcher recently to talk about celebrating sixty years in show business and he performs his brand new Christmas song.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Aled Jones
Presenter Sean Fletcher
Executive Producer Cat Lewis
Executive Producer Emyr Afan
Producer Mark Warburton
Series Producer Matthew Napier
Producer Karen Hannah
Production Company Avanti Media

Broadcast

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