大象传媒

Hardeep Singh Kohli explores the religious and cultural make-up of the UK by visiting three of its most diverse cities.

Hardeep begins this new series of Great British Faith in Manchester, on the face of it not a particular religious city but, with a little digging, he uncovers how the city's radical, commercial, and industrial might has its roots in the religious non-conformism of the 18th century.

He starts his journey outside a modern office building which houses the Unitarian church in the city centre, and learns how the strong beliefs of the influential Unitarians led to the Free Trade movement, parliamentary reform, and the eventual repeal of the hated corn laws.

He travels to one of the few places of worship in the city centre, St Ann's Church, to hear about the role the Mosley family played in Manchester's religious history, before heading south to Moss Side to learn how the Windrush generation reacted to being turned away from churches here in the 1950s.

Hardeep travels finally to North Manchester, where he meets a rapidly growing religious community, that of Orthodox Jews, and he hears how one in four children born in that area are to Jewish families.