Religious Programming: The God slot takes a leap of faith

Irrelevant, antiquated and ultimately, unpalatable - that has been the prevailing view of religious programming on television for years. Not any more: it seems that the genre is experiencing something of a renaissance. Viewers are realising that there might be more to it than a greying congregation croaking out hymns on a snoozy Sunday slot sandwiched between Antiques Roadshow and another rerun of Last of the Summer Wine.

"Religion is back," says BBC head of department Adam Kemp. "A few years ago it was this Cinderella genre that to some extent had slipped behind subjects like science and history. But what we have seen recently is a really dynamic recovery that has still got a long way to play out."

Really? This seems a bit like hyperbole, but the recent controversy over the Songs of Praise Easter special from Lichfield Cathedral (which was screened yesterday but was actually recorded straight after the Christmas edition) at least indicated that the nation cared.

Kemp points out that religion on TV's revival has come against a backdrop of global upheaval. "World events put the whole area back on the news agenda, and with that came this demand for information - on Christianity, on Islam, on God, on religion. Around that time Big Brother and reality were taking off; people became fascinated with minutiae of the personal. From that came new ideas and new formats that felt fresh and exploratory."

There is, of course, a boundary between what current affairs tackles and what the BBC's religious programming is. "Current affairs is the hard edge," Kemp explains. "So Panorama might investigate the darker aspects of faith. What we do is more rooted in culture - even spiritualism."

Kemp admits that the threat of terrorism has made viewers sit up and take notice of some shows, whereas in the past they may have flicked past them. But he also stresses that it is also a result of an information-hungry society interested in a wider range of things - from genealogy to 19th-century art. "The more imaginative we are the more audiences we will bring in. You just need one or two shows to make people stand up and take notice. For us The Monastery was probably the first. It just made people feel good."

The Monastery had five men - ranging from an atheist in the porn business to a former Protestant paramilitary - undergo a spiritual makeover by spending 40 days living with Roman Catholic monks. "It provided some amazing moments of television. There was something transcendental about it. The best shows are emotive - for those involved and the viewer. I don't think you could have walked away from that without feeling that you had seen something special. It is not just the viewers - the reaction among programme-makers was remarkable. A lot of them said to me, 'I've always thought of doing something like that. I should have pushed more.'"

Then along came the female version The Convent, and then, this year, The Retreat, in which three men and three women - both Muslims and non-Muslims - were filmed spending a month at a remote Islamic retreat. Arguably this is the perfect example of a reality show tapping into a topical issue, but Kemp says it is not about jumping on a bandwagon.

"Understanding what is going on is hugely important and here is a programme that gave insight into a religion that you just would not get from a traditional documentary," he explains, "My priority is to find things that help us to understand all faiths in new and interesting ways."

To that end, last Easter the BBC put on Manchester Passion - a noisy, vibrant procession through the city centre retelling the last few hours of Jesus's life, using music from bands including Joy Division. Some were outraged, some enthused, but it got people talking - and it broadcast on prime-time BBC3.

"Manchester Passion was genuinely one of the most exciting televisual moments of the year," Kemp says. "The whole of the city centre was humming and buzzing with predominantly young people. We do look to huge events as a centrepiece almost. The other religious idea that could work in a similar way is the Nativity. So to help to launch Liverpool as the city of culture in 2008, this December we will do a big street version of that story.

"It doesn't matter how you define it. Is it religion? Is it art? Is it music? It is something different and it makes an impact."

He concedes he is mindful of appealing to a younger, broader audience and sees it as the big challenge going forward, but disagrees that this translates into dumbing down.

But then talk turns to Extreme Pilgrim. In it, Anglican vicar Peter Owen Jones explore other faiths by taking on some of the most arduous pilgrimages in the world. Even if the intention is a noble one, surely some of the gravity is lost in giving it a name more akin to something broadcast on a cable channel.

"It actually has a Tribe-esque feel to it," smiles Kemp, referring to the hit Bruce Parry series in which he explored remote peoples. "It is for BBC2, which is a key laboratory for the genre. The point is we don't have to surrender anything. People think if we bring in big popular, inventive, entertaining programmes, that means we might have to give up some of the more traditional stuff we did in the past. That's not true."

In the mix also are quasi-political or historical pieces; for example Rageh Omaar taking a look inside Iran, and in The Protestant Revolution, Tristram Hunt investigating how this arm of Christianity moulded Britain into the country it is today.

The BBC is not alone. Channel 4 has had its acclaimed programme on the Mecca pilgrimage, The Hajj, not to mention anti-religion Richard Dawkins's The Root of All Evil. ITV, which has let its output in the genre dwindle, is testing the water again this year a new documentary - The Muslim Jesus - looking at Christ's role as a Prophet in Islam.

Drama too is stepping in, with plans for Easter 2008 that include a retelling of the Passion for BBC1, adapted into Bleak House-style half-hour episodes. "Religion does have the greatest stories in the world," Kemp explains. "This is not a genre that we feel we have to do. It is something we want to do."

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