BBC Making Animation of The Bible

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Having succeeded in telling the last week of Jesus's life in the live action drama The Passion, the BBC is set to produce an animated series on the Bible for release late next year. I first heard about this in Pioneer's 'Library of Lives' journal, but have been unable to find out much more, until just now.

There's a little bit on this new series at Broadcast Now. Apparently it will be produced by Anna Cox with Michael Mosley and Jean-Claude Bragard acting as executive producers. Cox and Bragard worked together on the 2006 documentary series The Miracles of Jesus (pictured), and Bragard has been involved in other religious documentaries for the BBC since at least 2001 when he produced / directed Son of God.

There's also a press release from the BBC which mainly seems to focus on the Beeb's partnership with Greek broadcaster SKAI Television, but it does have this to say:

Religious co-production Bible will be a six part series featuring the most important and iconic Bible stories. Each episode will use drama and CGI to bring the stories to life – emphasising their humanity, the miraculous experiences and the epic encounters.

It will be an accessible, entertaining, informative and intelligent guide to important passages in the Bible.

Various sources have stressed that The Bible will be a big budget production, though figures are a little sketchy. I also seem to recall hearing that this was a 13 episode series whereas these pages say it will be six hour long episodes. I'll post more news as it comes along.

BBC series on The Bible?

My church is part of the Pioneer Network of Churches, which produces the rather swish libraryoflives journal on a regular basis. The latest issue arrived this morning and I was surprised to read this from Gerald Coates who leads the Pioneer Team and is part of the Central Religious Advisory Council:

Recently we were shown a taster from what can only be described as an absolutely stunning series currently called The Bible. It relies heavily on animation. The BBC are spending £1.3 million on each programme.

It sounds intriguing. I'll try and find out more and report back. (By the way, the image shown has nothing to do with the actual production!)