Easter UK TV Schedule 2010

As with other years I've had a quick look through the TV schedules for the holiday period and picked out the programmes that might be of interest to readers of this site. (incidentally you can see other festive seasons' religious programming all together or individually - Easter '09, '08 and '07; Christmas '09 '08, '07 and '06).

This years seems to be a particularly good year for biblical epics and people who respect Rowan Williams (pictured). The only downside is that there's not much rare or original programming, but given that both the BBC and Channel 4 have offered us major series on Christianity already this year, and that only last week the BBC screened a rare Bible film, this is perhaps fair enough.

The Day Jesus Died
BBC1, Good Friday, 9am
"What is the meaning of Good Friday? Why do Christians honour the death of Jesus as a victory, whereas Jews and Muslims regard Jesus' crucifixion as a defeat and a humiliation? Historian Bettany Hughes embarks on a journey to uncover the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross, and finds out just why it still has significance today."(BBC Website)

The Robe
Channel 4, Good Friday, 1pm
Interweaving the fictional story of Marcellus' spiritual death and resurrection with that of the physical death of Jesus, The Robe is arguably one of the more apt Jesus Cameo films to broadcast on Good Friday. Richard Burton and Victor Mature are both a little hammy in places, but the Good Friday scenes are moving and impressive, and it's another chance to celebrate the life of Jean Simmons who died earlier this year.

King of Kings
Channel 5, Easter Sunday, 2pm
I know there are plenty of holes to pick with this film, but somehow I still find that I love it and long to watch it again. King of Kings turns 50 next year and whilst parts of it show its age, other parts still hold up remarkably well. It's been a while since this was last shown on our TV screens so it's nice to see it make a comeback. Suffice to say if I was to get a chance to choose a Jesus film to watch on the big screen, this would be one of the two I'd go for.

Something About Mary Magdalene
ITV1, Easter Monday, 12:10am
"Mary Magdalene remains one of the most enigmatic women in history. For almost two thousand years she has been the subject of myths and legends and has inspired both popular literature and some compelling religious art. Christianity's most prominent sinner turned saint? A repentant prostitute who followed Jesus and was the key witness to his resurrection? Leading world experts paint a new, radical portrait of Mary that challenges the Church's traditional account." (ITV website)

Greatest Story Ever Told
Channel 4, Easter Monday, 11:45am
As with last Easter, so Channel 4 are showing The Greatest Story Ever Told although not in the the very fitting timeslot it had last year. Still, if you have a spare three hours, and you can get past the distracting cameos, and the odd ridiculous moment (that's you Heston) there's much to enjoy.

And on top of this you can also catch the entire series of Diarmaid MacCulloch's excellent A History of Christianity on BBC4, and Jesus Christ, Superstar on ITV3. Dr Williams has heartily endorsed MacCulloch's work; Goodacre Jewison's.

Pop Clasics on Passion of the Christ

As part of reflecting on Palm Sunday, Pop Classics' Juliette Harrisson has reviewed Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. As an expert in the classics, as well as a Catholic, it's nice to have her perspective on the film, and she doesn't disappoint with a good proportion of the article taken up discussing the film's use of language. Juliette says the film was recorded in Hebrew and Aramaic, which I'm not quite sure is the way I remember it, unless the use of Hebrew is for a couple of Torah quotations or something. But there's then a good deal of talk on the film's Latin as well including a couple of interesting new observations (which is quite an achievement given how much I have read about the film over the last decade). And whilst I've read several Catholic perspectives on the film the something about the combination of Classics expertise and Catholic faith that means she really gets this film on a level I, perhaps, do not.

There have also been a number of posts on The Passion of the Christ at Jesu Cristo en el Cine recently.

National Geographic's Documentary Series on the Plagues and Jesus

I cam across news of this one thanks to an article in the Daily Telegraph called "Biblical Plagues Really Happened". It turns outs this new "evidence" was based on a National Geographic's Documentary Series on the Biblical Plagues which is airing this Easter. Ican't quite work out from National Geographic's web site how many episodes there are to this series, or how many of them have aired already. There are three Blog posts entitled Biblical Plagues Part 1: Tales of Terror, Biblical Plagues Part 2: The River of Blood and Biblical Plagues Part 3: Science Behind the Plagues, all of which end by saying "Don't miss Biblical Plagues: The First Curses and The Final Torments, this Monday starting at 9P et/pt!" but when you click on them they suggest the programmes run one after another on Sunday starting at 11A(M?).

It appears though that there's very little new in this documentary. I first came across the idea of the plagues being some sort of chain reaction over ten years ago. There might be some new information in this (perhaps that they were triggered by a sudden prolonged dry spell) but the core of the theory (including the possibility that a volcano was responsible, go a long way back.

Personally, while I used to be attracted to such theories, I find them a little too neat these days. It seems reasonable to me that a series of events may have lain behind the Exodus, but whther there were exactly ten plagues which occurred exactly as the final text of Exodus records seems a little unlikely / unimportant to me, particularly given the different sources behind the plagues seem to recall fewer in each instance (as far as I recall).There are also a number of other National Geographic documentaries showing through April from their "Mysteries of the Bible" series, including The Birth of Jesus, Jesus the Man, Jesus: the Healer and Jesus the Preacher which all air on Good Friday (2nd April), and one on Revelation that airs on Easter Monday (5th). Parts of these seem to be available to view online (even in the UK) though most of them seem to be repeats.

Whatever Happened to Ben Hur?

I've made various posts about the supposedly forthcoming mini-series remake of Ben Hur. Actually I've been meaning to post about it for quite a long time now, given that it was meant to be showing in various countries this Easter. In fact, Mark Pedro, Thomas Langkau and CGArtist have all been sending me a few updates on the production as April 4th got closer. But suddenly it seems to have disappeared. Both Mark and Thomas told me that they searched for it in their Easter TV magazines, but it appears that neither country will be showing it. This is strange as even as late as March 23rd there was a press release going round about its premiere on Canada's CBC. But I've checked the TV schedules for CBC (as well as the US's ABC and Spain's Antenna 3 who were also meant to be showing it) and none of them have any information on it. It is mentioned on this page on CBC, but there's no further info and it's not on the main schedule page. Furthermore, the trailer has been removed from YouTube, apparently "by the user" (though you can still view it here).

So it looks like it won't be shown this Easter, which, given that even if it's not actually finished by now it must be very close, does rather make me wonder when it will be shown. Christmas? Easter 2011? Or will it be relegated to a straight to DVD release?

Edit: One of the commenters below has seen the series and confirms that CBC are showing it this Easter

Who is Your Favourite Herod?

Over at NT Blog, Mark Goodacre asks "Who is Your Favourite Herod Antipas?" Mark is torn between Josh Moshtel's campy turn in 1973 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar and Jose Ferrer in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

I think my favourite portrayal of Herod Anitpas is Frank Thring's turn in 1961's King of Kings (pictured). Thring was a veteran of numerous historical epics, including Ben Hur, and El Cid, and, as anachronistic as it is, I like his murder of his father, Herod the Great. In honesty, though, I'm not willing to commit 100% to Thring until I've checked the relevant chapter in Adele Reinhartz's "Jesus of Hollywood".

Incidentally, In trying to find a decent photo of Thring in the role (I cropped the above to make Thring more prominent, but you can see the full picture here) I also turned up Thring shredding ex-neighbours star Craig Maclachlan in an interview, and numerous images on Jeffrey Hunter Movies. The latter site is definitely worth checking out as they have scanned in three articles about the film from 1961.

Sodom of Gomorrah (1962)

Stephen Lang, in his "The Bible on the Big Screen", subtitles Robert Aldrich's Sodom of Gomorrah "Not the Sin We Expected". It's undoubtedly a fair point: the story of Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah lasts for only three chapters of Genesis (13, 14 and 19) - not much material for a 150 minute film - yet nearly all of the biblical story, including the moment for which the cities were judged, was somehow omitted.

In fairness, attempted angel-rape was probably a little strong for the production code era, which forbade even the mention of homosexuality. That said, what the script writers were forced to leave out, the costuming department more than compensated for with a series of male tunics so short that they stretch little but the audience's credulity.

The film starts at some point after the events of Genesis 13, indeed the story of Lot and Abraham's separation is told by a narrator a couple of minutes into the film. Lot is leading a large group of people through the desert and already he is facing dissent from within his own camp. The scene - which echoes the complaints Moses faced when the Israelites were in the desert - is the first of many nods to other stories from the Hebrew Bible and their cinematic interpretations. There are numerous debates about slavery, angry prophets, housebound leopards, enemies being drowned by waves, girls bathing in milk, fights won using slings and stones and chains falling off godly men.

It's often been noted how Biblical epics have often sought to satisfy the audience's thirst for titillation and violence whilst simultaneously soothing any qualms they have about the material by including moments of piety and some form of "moral" conclusion. The wealth of biblical cross referencing perhaps also reflects the film's wealth of mildly erotic material. Given this tendency within epic films in general, it's hardly surprising that one about Sodom of Gomorrah takes it to extremes. Barely a scene goes by without a dance from a group of scantily clad women or some beefy man flexing his muscles.

In fact the finished film betrays the likelihood that it was conceived primarily because of it's potential for titillating material. Lot is very much a minor figure in the Bible, and certainly no kind of hero. We first hear of him as he and his men are falling out with his uncle (Abraham), then he gets himself captured and needs Abraham to come and rescue him, before settling into a Godless city and only just managing to escape before it suffers and almighty smiting. There are various stories in Genesis which reflect badly on Abraham, but in his dealings with Lot he always comes out smelling of roses. But of course, the filmmakers must have reasoned, in the Bible Abraham is left out of the destruction of Sodom episode, so if we want to make a film about that, then we're going to have to make Lot the hero.

To do this the story of Abraham rescuing Lot is missed out, the majority of the material inserted stresses Lot's morality and heroism and the story of Abraham bargaining with God over Sodom's fate is retold with Lot as the hero. The inserted material features a number of overlapping sub-plots: the queen of Sodom's brother is plotting to overthrow her using another tribe; the queen is seeking to protect her cities using Lot and the Hebrews; the queen's slave falls in love with Lot and becomes his wife; the queen's brother seduces Lot's daughters; and supposed anti-slavery of the Hebrews clashes with the Sodomites use and abuse of slaves to build their kingdom. In all the majority of these scenes Lot is portrayed as an anti-slavery, just, merciful, brave and principled leader, in stark contrast to the conniving, immoral Sodomites and their lesbian queen.

The major exception comes towards the end of the film. The Hebrews defeat the enemy tribe, but their land has been destroyed so they turn to selling salt, make a huge profit and move into the city. But as they do so they begin to lose their principles. Lot is no exception to this compromise with Sodom, but comes to his senses after killing the queen's brother in a duel, being duly arrested and then visited and released by the two angels from Genesis 18 and 19.

As a film Sodom of Gomorrah (also known as Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah leaves a good deal to be desired. It's overly campy, badly written and often hamily acted. But Mikos Rozsa's score is fine and the scenery (Aït Ben Haddou 20 miles outside Ouarzazete, Morocco) is often impressive. And there are at least two impressive moments. The scene where the Hebrews fight the Halamites is very well put together by a young Sergio Leone, demonstrating the potential that would blossom in his spaghetti westerns. The other is the film's opening shot (overlaid by the titles) where the camera pans over a mass of intermingled, semi-clad, restless bodies. It's strangely disorientating, particularly given the well known fate of the Sodomites, and captures the 'otherness' of the story which is about to unfold far better than the rest of the movie ever does.

Sodom and Gomorrah on iPlayer

I almost missed this, but it 1962's Hebrew Bible epic Sodom and Gomorrah was on BBC2 last Saturday and, consequently, will be available on the BBC's iPlayer until this Saturday. I don't really know much about it, other than that it stars Stewart Granger and Pier Angeli and has a score by the great Miklos Rozsa. But eventhough the IMDb gives it only 5.6 out of 10, I'm still going to have to find time to watch it before Saturday or else I might never get the chance again.