Movable Feasts
Movable Feasts is a BBC schools TV series from the 1990s, covering religious education for primary school pupils.
A series about the major faiths in the UK, and in particular how important food is to religious observation and festivals, as discovered by a trio of young adults running a catering company.
Sam and her friend Michael have set up their company Movable Feasts to cater for birthdays and dinner parties, with Robert cooking for them. As they establish their business they deal with the financial and practical challenges, such as advertising for business, or their bright yellow, branded Sherpa van breaking down.
At the same time they keep finding clients with dietary requirements for religious reasons, or wanting to cater for a festival such as Eid or Ramadan. To find out what they need to do the Movable Feasts caterers go to talk to members of different religious communities, at shops or temples. These extended conversations, though still in character, form mini documentaries in the middle of the story.
Throughout the series the team work towards catering a major multi-faith festival in the spring, researching the festivals and food choices that they could serve before the festival takes place in the penultimate episode.
Robert, Sam and Michael...
...driving around in their bright yellow van.
Locations
The series was made by BBC North, based in the city of Manchester, and it is set around Manchester visiting venues including Manchester Central Mosque.
The catering company is based in a converted garage (owned by Michael's father) round the back of a factory. The interiors were recorded in the studio but the exteriors were based, I believe, at Harper Mill in Ashton-under-Lyne
[1].
Episode List
| # | Title | Subject | Schools Broadcast | Original Broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Sales Drive | Islam | 28 Apr 1992 | 4 Nov 1990 |
| 2. | Tough at the Bottom | Christianity | 30 Apr 1992 | 11 Nov 1990 |
| 3. | Family Business | Hinduism | 5 May 1992 | 18 Nov 1990 |
| 4. | Under Threat | Judaism | 7 May 1992 | 25 Nov 1990 |
| 5. | Equal Rights | Sikhism | 12 May 1992 | 2 Dec 1990 |
| 6. | A Better Offer | Christianity | 14 May 1992 | 9 Dec 1990 |
| 7. | The Reorganization | Buddhism | 19 May 1992 | 16 Dec 1990 |
| 8. | Shop Till You Drop | Christianity | 21 May 1992 | 23 Dec 1990 |
| 9. | Upwardly Mobile | Islam | 26 May 1992 | 30 Dec 1990 |
| 10. | Out for the Night | Judaism | 28 May 1992 | 6 Jan 1991 |
| 11. | The Big Day | Hinduism | 2 Jun 1992 | 13 Jan 1991 |
| 12. | The Morning After | Christianity | 4 Jun 1992 | 20 Jan 1991 |
Broadcasts
Movable Feasts was originally a general children's series, not a schools series. It was first broadcast as part of Children's BBC on Sunday mornings on BBC2 at 8:30am from 4th November 1990 to 20th January 1991, with the episode covering the Christian festival Christmas shown just before Christmas, and the multi-faith festival taking place early in the new year towards the time of the spring festivals recognised by the team.
It was repeated on BBC1 on Sunday morning at 9:15am from 25th May to 9th November 1991, with a four week gap between the penultimate and final episodes even though their storyline is continuous.
After this it became part of the schools broadcasts on BBC2 from 1992.
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991-92 | Summer 1992 | Tuesday, 11:35am | Wednesday, 10:00am | Thursday, 11:55am | Friday, 11:00am | BBC2 | 2 eps per week, Tue rpt Wed, then Thu rpt Fri | |
| 1992-93 | Summer 1993 | Monday, 11:55am | Wednesday, 9:00am | Thursday, 11:30am | Friday, 9:00am | BBC2 | 2 eps per week, Mon rpt Wed, then Thu rpt Fri | |
| 1993-94 | Autumn 1993, Spring & Summer 1994 | Tuesday, 10:00am | BBC2 | Weekly from 21 Sep, then restart from 25 Jan | ||||
| 1994-95 | Summer 1995 | Tuesday, 11:15am | Thursday, 11:15am | BBC2 | 2 eps per week | |||
| 1995-96 | Spring & Summer 1996 | Monday, 9:25am | BBC2 | Weekly from 26 Feb |
Credits
| Starring | Kieran Cunningham as Michael Colin Kerrigan as Robert Franklin |
| Written by | Nick McIvor |
| Religious Adviser | Noel Vincent |
| Music by | A C R |
| Graphic Designer | Yasmeen Farooqui |
| Designer | Andrew Wilkins |
| Executive Producer | Edward Pugh |
| Director | Jeremy Woolf |
| Producer | Judy Merry |
Resources
Teacher's Notes
A extensive, 52-page typewritten booklet of notes, covering the story from each episode in detail, some of the religious context, and extensive follow-up notes drawing on noticing and discussing things seen on screen under headings such as 'what's different here?', 'what might this mean?' and 'is there anything wrong with this?'.
The notes were published in 1992 with a colour-photocopied cover with a picture of the cast. They were re-released in subsequent years with a plain typeset cover, but otherwise unchanged including typing errors such as "Michael tells Dam about..." instead of "Sam" and repeated confusion of the character Michael with Robert.
Written by Angela Wood
Links
- ↑ Location of the company office is based on a likely visual identification of the factory unit, which has "M Pickle" visible at the top in the establishing shot at the start of the first episode.
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