Rule Britannia back in Proms

Rule Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory will be restored to the programme of 2002's Last Night of the Proms - along with the Liverpool terrace anthem You'll Never Walk Alone, it emerged today.

Last year the last night came only four days after 11 September and what is traditionally the most jingoistic night in Britain was radically reprogrammed to mark the tragedy. The two classic British standards were not played for the first time in years.

The BBC's Nicholas Kenyon, director of the Proms, said: "It was extremely controversial with some, but in the end the response of our focusing the last night as a memorial of those who died was widely praised.

"It is absolutely vital that the traditional elements of the last night are there unless there is a good reason - as there was last year - for not including them."

The newly restored anthems of Britishness will also be relayed live on the last night to a huge outdoor screen in Belfast.

Mr Kenyon said he did not believe screening the unabashedly patriotic scenes from The Albert Hall on 14 September would alienate local nationalists. "The whole idea of The Proms is to unite - not to divide," he said.

"The audience in Belfast will be able to take as much and as little as they want and we hope they will enter the spirit of the last night as audiences around the country have in the past."

You'll Never Walk Alone makes its debut appearance as part of a celebration of Richard Rodgers' centenary. The song was written for the musical Carousel, and Broadway singer Audra McDonald will include it in a special Rodgers medley. Maureen Lipman will star in a concert version of his Oklahoma.

Other less traditional evenings at the Royal Albert Hall will include guitarist John Williams leading a concert of African music and a night of flamenco to reflect this year's Hispanic theme.

Despite these departures, Mr Kenyon insisted: "The core of it are still the great classical masterpieces - and there will be lots of accessible and important new music."

Classical big-hitters this year include James Levine, Sir Simon Rattle and Valery Gergiev.

Violin prodigy Chlo? Hanslip, 14, will be the youngest soloist in this year's season.

Mr Kenyon said: "The collection of great names in this year's season is as good as any I have been involved with."

One innovation that will please all concertgoers is an underfloor air-cooling system that should dramatically reduce the temperature inside the hall, which Mr Kenyon admitted was "almost physically unbearable in the hottest days of summer".

A new poem to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee, to be written by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, will be put to music, along with six other new pieces of poetry, recreating The Triumphs of Oriana for Elizabeth I in 1601. The new works will not concentrate on the monarchy, but be about the nation it rules.

Mr Motion said they would be "a challenge to our received ideas - a celebration of this anniversary, of our changed and changing society and of the central role that art of every kind plays in our lives".