The Big Silence (BBC2, 7pm); The Event (C4, 9pm); Come Dine with Me Soap Star Special (C4, 8pm).

BENEDICTINE monk Christopher Jamison points out that “many of the world’s religions believe there’s one simple path that leads us towards God. It’s called silence”.

In a new three-part BBC2 series he’s helping to show that silence can be golden.

The Big Silence follows five people who’ve taken time out of their daily lives in an attempt to understand just why silence is so elusive and hard to attain in today’s society.

Carrie, David, Helen, Jon and Trish all have modern, high-pressured jobs in stressful trades: business, teaching, PR, media and hospitality. They live hectic lives surrounded by constant white noise – internet, text, mobile phone, conferencecalling and multi-media. All are looking for an opportunity to find a more spiritual dimension to their lives.

Guiding the volunteers on their spiritual journey is Abbott Christopher Jamison, of Worth Abbey, in West Sussex, who featured in popular BBC2 series The Monastery.

As a Benedictine monk he’s steeped in the Catholic tradition of the contemplative life, but is convinced that everyone in the “real” world outside the monastery can also benefit from sustained, regular periods of silence.

“When we enter into periods of silence, we start to see things with greater clarity.

We come to know ourselves, and get in touch with the deepest part of ourselves.

That is our soul,” he says.

In the first episode, Father Christopher invites the volunteers to spend two days with his community of monks in Sussex, where they spend time in quiet, completive prayer and meditation. “It’s not a spiritual bath or tonic. The reality is very different. We bump into our deepest selves,” he says.

The weekend at Worth Abbey is to prepare the group for the experience that