Programme Information

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has spent a lifetime fighting injustice in South Africa and other parts of the world. It won him the Nobel Peace Prize. In this frank and moving interview in the lead up to Christmas, he tells Fern Britton he is not an optimist but "a prisoner of hope".

He also gives her a unique insight into his ideas about God. "I never doubted that this was an omnipotent God", he says, "but when I meet him I will certainly ask: why is it that you test us ... couldn't you think of a better way?"

Tutu risked his life for freedom. He was as ready to rescue a suspected Government informer from an angry township mob as he was to take on the feared white security forces of South Africa.

"I used to say to God. Look here – if I'm going to do your work you are jolly well going to look after me."

When Nelson Mandela was released, he spent his first night of freedom under Tutu's roof. Even after the election of a black majority Government, Tutu's work was not over. He presided over truth and reconciliation hearings and heard harrowing stories of persecution, torture and murder. That experience affected him deeply but he says he never despaired.

"It was the knowledge that, ultimately, truth is going to prevail. Goodness is going to prevail – no matter how long it takes."

In the next programme in this series, Fern Britton talks to former Prime Minister Tony Blair about the significance of his conversion to Catholicism; why he's set up a faith foundation to get people of different religions to work together; and why faith is so important in the modern world.

In the final programme, Fern meets Sheila Hancock, renowned for being one of Britain's best-loved actors but less well known for being a Quaker. She lost two husbands to cancer and after the death of the second, actor John Thaw, wrote two inspiring books.

GD/JF

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Small Island Ep 1/2

Sunday 6 December

9.00-10.30pm BBC ONE (Schedule addition 17 November)

• Feature – Interview with David Oyelowo
• Feature – Interview with Ruth Wilson
• Feature – Interview with Benedict Cumberbatch
• Press pack

Queenie (Ruth Wilson) and Michael (Ashley Walters) share a tender moment in Small Island

Adapted from Andrea Levy's best-selling, award-winning novel, BBC One's two-part drama, Small Island, starring Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Naomie Harris, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters, is an epic love story about the determined pursuit of dreams in the face of seemingly insurmountable barriers.

As the drama begins, Hortense has travelled from Jamaica to live with her new husband, Gilbert, in Forties London. Hortense arrives at Queenie Bligh's house where Gilbert has rented them a room in the attic. Having harboured dreams about moving to England with her first love, Michael, Hortense is immediately disappointed with both her new husband and the dingy home he has found for them.

Hortense thinks back to her life in Jamaica, remembering her unspoken love for Michael; the pain of discovering him in the arms of another woman; how he was banished abroad to join the RAF; and how she was subsequently sent to Kingston to train as a teacher.

Meanwhile, Queenie also thinks back to the events that have led her to her present situation. Desperate to escape Yorkshire and her family's pig farm, she came to live with her beloved Aunt in London where she was pursued by the respectable but dull Bernard.

Like Hortense, Queenie has found herself in an unsatisfactory marriage and is forced to look after his shell-shocked father while Bernard fights in the Second World War. Queenie remembers one particular passionate meeting with a Jamaican RAF airman during the Blitz – the very same man whom Hortense loves.

Gilbert is hardly satisfied with his present situation either, knowing only too well that, in his desperation to leave Jamaica, he has allowed himself to be bought by Hortense, who has paid for his passage to England. He reflects on his first trip to England during the war as an RAF airman where he befriended Queenie in Yorkshire.

Now, years later, all three are living under the same roof, yet Hortense and Queenie have no idea of the light they carry for the same man.

Hortense is played by Naomie Harris; Gilbert by David Oyelowo; Queenie by Ruth Wilson; Michael by Ashley Walters; and Bernard by Benedict Cumberbatch.

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