Songs of Praise has screened the show's first ever gay wedding as part of a drive to modernise the programme.

Presenters of the BBC One show have vowed that they are “not afraid of controversy” as they broadcast a wedding which is currently banned in the Church of England.

The Sunday afternoon show, which has been running since 1961, was traditionally a “sort of hymn sandwich”, presenter of more than three decades Pam Rhodes said.

But now, which a magazine format an on screen cast which includes soprano Katherine Jenkins and JB Gill, the former frontman of boy-band JLS, the show is appealing to a new audience.

Last month grime star Stormzy even allowed his Glastonbury headline performance of Blinded By Your Grace to be rebroadcast on Songs of Praise.

Sunday’s episode on faith and marriage featured the wedding of Jamie Wallace and Ian McDowall at the Rutherglen United Reformed Church in Glasgow, one of the few religious denominations in the UK to welcome same sex marriage.

Since 2016 individual congregations have been able to vote on whether or not their church should hold the weddings.