Songs of Praise WWI Preview Video

As I posted before, Libera will be on the "Songs of Praise" TV show in the UK this Sunday, August 3 at 4:25 pm on BBC Two. BBC has a short preview of the show.



Next week, Bill visits St. George's Memorial Church in Ypres, Belgium to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War a hundred years ago. Classical chart-toppers, Libera, sing against the backdrop of the battlefields and uncover some of their own families' war stories.


Libera also posted about this - 

"As part of the BBC commemoration of the centenary of World War 1, Libera travelled to France and Belgium in May to film a special 'Songs of Praise' programme for transmission on Sunday 3rd August at 4 25pm on BBC2.

The programme makers researched the history of some of the boys' families, and discovered that many of them had ancestors who had fought in the conflict.

The boys located the memorials to their relatives who died in the war - some had marked graves, others had no known grave but had their names carved into the Thiepval monument which contains over 72,000 inscriptions.

They also visited Ypres and Sanctuary Wood to film performances of Libera songs."

Yes, you read that correctly! Libera SONGS! As in more than one. :D Hope someone in the UK records the show and posts it for all of us to see! Thank you to Jimmy Riddle for posting the preview video above.

Here are more pictures from Libera of their time in France and Belgium in May.

Filming for "Songs of Praise"

Sam Wiggin

 Walking by In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres, Belgium

In front of the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium

Filming outside in Sanctuary Wood, Belgium

Ciaran Bradbury-Hickey

Tom Delgado-Little

Tom & Ciaran

Alex Gula

Ben Fairman & Isaac London being interviewed

At the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme

Libera Filming in France for Songs of Praise!

UPDATED - May 31 & June 26, 2014

We now know the filming the boys did in France IS for Songs of Praise! The program will commemorate the start of WWI and air on August 3 on BBC Two. BBC gives some interesting information about Libera's part of the program.

"In addition, classical chart toppers Libera sing against the backdrop of the battlefields and discover some of their own family history in connection with the war. Ciaran Bradbury goes in search of the grave of his great, great Uncle Stanley Bradbury who was a Corporal in the Royal Flying Corps while Sam Wiggin wants to find the name of his great, great Uncle George Michie which he has been told is on the Monument to the Missing in Thiepval."

That is so cool to have relatives who bravely fought for England. Hope we all get to see this episode.

You can read the BBC web page here. Thank you to Jimmy Riddle for the link!

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Exciting news! Libera is busy again! On May 28 they posted that they were on their way to France for TV filming. I'm guessing it's something for Songs of Praise, but you never know. The 100th anniversary of World War I is coming up as is the 70th anniversary of D-Day from World War II. Maybe it's something for that?

Crossing the English Channel by boat

The next day they teased us with more pictures of them filming in France. Here they are wearing their blue shirts and coats.

Looking thoughtful for the camera

In front of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme,

built to honor the missing or unidentified British soldiers from

the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

 

I have a friend, Josh, who is a total history nerd, especially about war-related stuff. 

He was taking a Graduate level 500 history class our Freshman year!!

I asked him what kind of gun this is, and of course he knew, cause that's the kind of person he is.

He said, "It's a British 25 pounder. It was their main artillery gun of World War 2.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but I believe it is a Mark 2 Ordnance QF 25 pounder."

OK, then. There you go.

Does anyone know where these war trenches are?

My mom thinks it looks like WWI Sanctuary Wood in Belgium.

But my history nerd friend said, "They appear to be old French trenches 

that belonged to the Maginot Line. The forest in the background would indicate

 the Ardenne Forest between Belgium and France, so they would be technically

 in France. As a side note, they appear to have been fortified at some point 

during German occupation between 1940-1944." 

Besides being a nerd, he's also a bit of a show-off. ;)

Yesterday they were filming wearing their white robes. You can see a screen behind them with what looks like a photo of a bombed out building. 

Maybe Tom is singing a solo? :)

2nd day of filming

Then today they posted that they have finished filming.

They also had some time for sightseeing and fun. Can't wait to see this video! Hope it airs soon!