The Bible: A History, Part 5

As I mentioned whilst reviewing last week's instalment of The Bible: A History my review of this week's entry has been posted at rejesus.co.uk (as well as a preview piece I wrote a fortnight ago).

I do have a few additional points to add. Firstly, as with previous episodes there were clips from various Bible films. I struggled to recognise most of those from last week's episode, so it was a relief to fair rather better this week. The excerpts were mainly from Life and Passion of Jesus Christ , The Living Bible series and The Living Christ series with another shot from The Westminster Passion Play (at a guess).

Secondly, it seemed a bit ambitious for the programme to take on the whole of the Jesus story, and this left certain elements feeling a little up in the air. For example, the discussion about Jesus' birthplace not being Nazareth has featured in numerous documentaries over the years and didn't really add a great deal to proceedings. It was useful to see Helen Bond giving him some pointers, I suppose, as it gave his visit to the Holy Land some context and legitimacy, but there were various moments which felt like they didn't really fit.

For me, I think, this was the strongest episode so far, and I do find Adams and his faith fascinating. One point that did grate however, was when he talked about his faith being private. I think it loses that aspect when you go on camera to talk about it.

Next week it's historian Tom Holland looking at Paul. Hopefully he will continue the series' recent good run of form.

Edit: John Crace of The Guardian clearly disagrees with me.