Press Releases08 Apr 09

The Bishop of Down & Dromore on Holy Week Television

The Holy Week cupboard is bare – on TV

Christians in the 21st Century do not expect to be a 'protected species' so far as broadcasting is concerned, but might have a reasonable expectation that they are provided with something of substance and interest to view on television at key points in the Christian year. Yet, a careful reading of the schedules in this week's Radio Times shows a cupboard which is practically bare, so far as Christian faith is concerned, in the entirety of Holy Week. There are no additional programmes at all, other than a repeat of The Greatest Story Ever Told on Channel 4, a re-run of part of last year’s The Passion on BBC4 and a programme about the making of Handel’s Messiah on BBC2. This is particularly striking for readers of the Radio Times, which still instinctively trims its Good Friday page with pictures of the Crucifixion, though the schedules contain nothing of it.

If I am truly honest, I no longer expect anything of real religious depth from ITV, which appears to have banished most things religious to after midnight, or out of the schedules entirely. The best we can hope for there is a few minutes on UTV Live. But I am stunned by the approach this year of our key public broadcaster, the BBC. Last year, the BBC’s production and broadcasting of The Passion showed us that it was capable of creating strong material, but it would be a shame if budgets were so used up in one year to preclude providing anything the next. The BBC has many different television channels available, and a nod and a wink to music inspired by religious themes is simply not adequate to meet the needs of Christians, or indeed those who may wish to understand the Christian faith, during Holy Week.

There is an old verse from the book of Lamentations which is often used of the sufferings of Jesus: Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Clearly it is nothing to television programme planners this year. Perhaps the best thing we can do is switch off our televisions on Good Friday, because they certainly will do little to feed our souls.

+Harold, Down & Dromore

ENDS