The Minster
Spare a thought for the stonemasons of York Minster, practicing their ancient craft in the freezing cold so visitors today can savour the breathtaking beauty of the eight-centuries-old building. And I don’t just mean the artisans of times past: though the medieval forebears might have been shocked, their numbers now include plenty of women, one of whom shares her very modern dreams as she labours in the stoneyard during a chilly Easter: ‘Hot baths. And a meal. And the Costa Brava.’ Rev has departed the screen, but there’s a fair flavour of an ecclesiastical sitcom to the affable characters and absorbing goings-on captured in The Minster, a three-part series that follows one year in the cathedral (Friday, BBC Two at 8pm).
Towering hundreds of feet up, it dominates the surrounding city, but within the glory of the building are heart-warming and affecting tales at a very human scale. The 12 months begin on the eve of Candlemas and as the impressively sizeable nativity display is taken down, the head verger picks out a charming detail: a child’s plastic cow added to the delightful 19thcentury carvings. Up in the bell tower, a junior verger knows how to have a good time – hanging onto the rope to be lifted up and down like a rag doll by more than 10 tons of campanological metal. Never mind the spiritual crises of Tom Hollander’s character, this is the rather more practical, yet gently life-affirming, reality of church life today.
NOT TO BE MISSED
Eurovision Song Conte st 2014, BBC One, Sat, 8pm Gawp in amazement and horror at the musical offerings, presented by Graham Norton from Copenhagen.
An Englishman Abroad, BBC Four, Sun, 9pm
A re-run of this unfading gem by Alan Bennett: Alan Bates plays traitor Guy Burgess; the magnificent Coral Browne co-stars.
Copacabana Palace , BBC Two, Mon, 9pm
Life’s always a beach at the renowned Rio hotel, but not in the favelas where the staff live. An eyeopening film.