New Testament scholar Mark Goodacre noted at his blog last Friday that he has been “engaged as a consultant” on an upcoming British mini-series called The Passion. To quote The Stage:
Frank Deasy, one of the writers of Prime Suspect, will pen the BBC’s new £4 million drama The Passion, which is understood to be scheduled for 2008.
The mini-series will follow the week leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Producer Nigel-Stafford Clark, who recently worked on the Corporation’s award-winning adaptation of Bleak House, told MediaGuardian that he had selected Deasy because he had an instinctive understanding of the task.
It is reported that the format will take the same soap opera scheduling approach as Bleak House – in half hour episodes each night.
FWIW, in an earlier story back in April, The Stage had reported:
BBC1 controller Peter Fincham said: “Jesus of Nazareth was a big story that was big box office, it was the biggest thing on TV that year and it was about religion. It is a good example of the sort of thing the BBC should be doing because we can do it and no one else will.”
Speaking at a conference for media lobby group Voice of the Listener and Viewer, Fincham revealed that the popularity of BBC1’s Bleak House had highlighted the fact that retelling classic stories in innovative ways, appealed to viewers.
Two questions leap to mind immediately, of course. One: Will this mini-series make it to our side of the pond? And two: I can understand new films cashing in on the popularity of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) by focusing on the Resurrection or the Nativity … but re-doing the Passion itself, so soon!?
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