BBC Making Animation of The Bible

See all posts on this film.

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.

New BBC Documentary Series - "The Miracles of Jesus"

UPDATE: I've now reviewed this programme, and hope to post an interview with its producer Jean-Claude Bragard shortly.

BBC1 is to show a three part series looking at the miracles of Jesus, set to start on the 30th July 2006. The series called "The Miracles of Jesus" is produced by Jean-Claude Bragard who also produced 2001's 3 part documentary about Jesus "Son of God" (also known as "Jesus: The Complete Story" in the US).

As ever there's a good bit of info on the BBC website with a reasonably detailed overview of each programme which are split up as follows:

Programme One
In first-century Galilee, what did miracles mean?
Programme Two
Did Jesus really believe he was the son of God?
Programme Three
The most astonishing miracle of all.

There's also a special feature - Jesus's miracles: the ancient and modern meanings. At over 2800 words it's quite extensive for a programme's website, and I imagine it covers most of what the programme will do. There are some interesting interpretations there - very strong on putting the miracles in a first century Jewish context, and noting the resonances with key events in Israelite history.

Usually these documentaries have a number of interesting contributors. "Son of God" had a number including Mark Goodacre, and Tom Wright who was critical of the final programme. That said, on the basis of the information given on the website it looks like Wright may well be involved again this time. One comment in particular has Wright written all over it:

The widow's son, Jairus' daughter and Lazarus were resuscitated or revived: they would eventually die again. Jesus on the other hand would live forever. His resurrection entailed a complete transformation in his body and spirit, a complete victory over death

The series is showing at 6:35pm on BBC1 over three Sundays, starting on the 30th July.

BBC2's The Bible's Buried Secrets

I'd somehow not really caught on that there was about to be a new Bible related documentary being broadcast on BBC2, despite reading Doug Chaplin's two posts and even commenting on one of them. I should also point out that this is not simply a re-hashed version of 2008's PBS documentary of the same name. Here's my review
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The Bible's Buried Secrets is the latest in a long line of modern BBC documentaries about the Bible going back to Son of God a decade ago. Like the 2001 series The Bible's Buried Secrets has been produced by Jean-Claude Bragard who also worked on The Miracles of Jesus, Moses and Mary.

This series starts with David and Solomon and presenter Francesca Stavrakopoulou starts off by asking "Can we even talk about a historical David at all?" There are a few introductory preview clips before Stavrakopoulou sums up what the programme will be about. "Is the biblical account of King David true, and what are the consequences if it isn't?"

As usual with this type of documentary the presenter tours round the relevant locations switching between speaking to experts and monologuing into the camera. Thankfully though Stavrakopoulou avoids the all too typical manner of presenting the programme as if she hadn't a clue about what she's just been told. Just as well given Charlie Brooker scathing dismantling of the modern day documentary in last Tuesday's final instalment of "How TV Ruined Your Life". Instead she played it smart, allowing the archaeologists to speak for themselves and then discretely offering her disagreements once they were off camera.

Such an approach typifies the technical quality of the programme. It was nicely shot, clearly argued and well structured, working through the different historical layers of archaeologists before Stavrakopoulou delivered her own conclusion.

Stavrakopoulou's journey starts in Gath in conversation with Aren Maeir. The Philistines he tells us weren't barbarians they were actually very cultured and we have found remains of their cities. If the Bible's history is correct then we would expect similar finds in Israel.

This is followed by a summary of the work of Yigael Yadin whose work in the middle of the last century concluded that biblical archaeology confirms the narratives found in the Hebrew Bible. Yet whilst Yadin's view were dominant going into the 1970s, his work was eventually re-evaluated, and shown to be rather limited. Israel Finkelstein takes up the story from there. Yadin's finds were significantly later than he calculated. The film rather skims over things here, and it leaves me with more questions than answers, which I suspect might pass many other viewers by.

Stavrakopoulou alternates between experts in and out of agreement with a simple reading of the texts. After Finklestein comes Yosef Garfinkel at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he describes as "biblical Pompeii". The large city gates are an indicator of some form of semi-complex statehood. But there are questions about the dating and so Stavrakopoulou investigates the evidence that it was Omri, not David, who was responsible for much of the building in the region from that time. This section includes discussion of the Tel Dan Stele which refers to the "house of David" but she remains rather sceptical.

After that diversion it's back to Jerusalem where Doron Spielman claims to have found David's fortress after taking a closer look at 2 Samuel 5:17. Finkelstein dismisses Spielman's whole approach but doesn't offer a great deal of evidence to explain why the site definitely isn't related to David.

Stavrakopoulou's penultimate interview is with Baruch Halpern. Halpern is clearly of great importance. Not only does he get to have a nice meal at the King David Hotel (geddit?) rather than having to explain his theories in a dusty archaeological site. Oddly we also see Stavrakopoulou getting having her make-up done beforehand. We never saw Robert Beckford doing his hair or Jeremy Bowen trimming his moustache, so why do we get this for her? That said, interviewing Halpern inside does make a modicum of sense, as he discusses how to read the texts rather than simply deal with the archaeological evidence in a black and white fashion. Halpern's argument is that the type of warts-and-all material we have on David seems unlikely to be entirely fabricated. It's unlikely that someone would make a mythical character quite so flawed.

Ultimately, Stavrakopoulou dismisses Halpern's theories, preferring to advance her own. The Mesha Stele tells us about the exploits of the Israelite king Omri, almost entirely ignored by the biblical authors. It was he, not David, that expanded the kingdom and built many of the structures we find in Northern Israel (though the identity of builder of the Jerusalem structures is not explained). It was the southern nation (Judah) that wrote the history and they largely expunged the prowess of Omri and invented a series of myths about their own great, expansionist king - David. As a theory it's not entirely satisfying to me. Why was the builder of Jerusalem's fort not named in the Bible and elevated to mythical status? Isn't it likely that the now carbon dated seeds found at one of the structures simply show that the site was still in use a century or so later?

This being the BBC things have to end on an ambiguous note, and as usual there are comments (this time from Yonathan Mizrachi) about how the archaeological evidence or lack thereof shouldn't be used to stake a political claim for the land and Stavrakopoulou concludes rather weakly that what's important is that its the "meaning of the story that has proved so resilient" and so on. It feels very token, somewhat like the unconvincing endings to various production code era Hitchcock films.

Whilst, based on the evidence I've seen here, I disagree with the film's conclusions, it's nevertheless one of the better made and better presented religious documentaries I've seen in recent years, and, aside from that one particular disappointing moment it respects its audience and doesn't talk down to them, covering a good deal of ground in just under an hour. Next week Stavrakopoulou will explore the possibility the God may have been assigned a wife.

N.B. This article was edited to remove material that was probably somewhat sexist. I think my intention was good, but still a bit ignorant and poorly executed.Apologies.