Seventy years ago, in February 1956, the BBC aired the mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth”, which was the first filming of the life of Jesus to be created for television. This is the story …
History
The first television broadcast in the world was made by the BBC in 1936. Few people owned televisions at the time, but sales shot up dramatically before and after the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.
In 1954, the BBC had the idea to produce an eight-part serial that dramatised the life of Jesus, climaxing on Easter Sunday. This was the first time it had been done on British television. The series was created for children and was to be shown during the Sunday children’s hour slot.
Joy Harington was a seasoned BBC children’s producer. She wrote and oversaw the series after a year of meticulous preparation, consulting Rev Robert C Walton, head of BBC Schools’ Religious Broadcasting, and Rev Roy McKay, head of BBC Religious Broadcasting.
Filming
Joy Harington’s scripts tell the life of Jesus from a boy of twelve living in an occupied country to the Resurrection. To give the whole series authenticity, in spring 1955 they headed off to Israel to spend several weeks filming scenes on location, in the very places where they first happened in Galilee and Jerusalem.
The series then blended these pre-recorded episodes with live studio broadcasts made at Lime Grove Studio E in Ealing. To make it more accessible, the characters spoke in normal, everyday English rather than in the archaic language of the King James Version most people associated with Christianity at the time.
In February 1956, Freda Lingstrom, head of Children’s Television, wrote in the “Radio Times”: “Our aim is to awaken the interest of children in the origins of the most significant influence in their lives and help them to understand something of the background against which the Christian story was enacted.”
The Series
The series was broadcast in 1956 as eight episodes, shown each Sunday at 5:20pm, starting on February 12 and ending on Easter Day, 18 March. The episodes traced the story of Jesus from his boyhood to the Resurrection. The eight shows were:
Prologue: Preparing the Way
The Beloved Son
Jesus the Healer
Jesus the Teacher
Jesus the King
The Road to Jerusalem
Behold the Man
I Am Always with You
The cast featured acting talents such as Tom Fleming as Jesus, Barbara Lott as Mary Magdalene, Michael Bryant as John, Anthony Jacobs as Judas, and Alan Wheatley as Pontius Pilate.
Tom Fleming
The actor who played Jesus was Tom Fleming, the son of a Baptist minister and already an established actor and commentator. He had commentated on Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953, and had also appeared on an episode of the BBC’s Epilogue programme discussing his Christian faith. His devout and reverential portrayal of Jesus resonated with his own deep faith.
Fleming was an organist, lay preacher, and secretary at Canonmills Baptist Church in Edinburgh. He went on to commentate on many momentous events. In 1981, he joined Angela Rippon as a commentator for the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. In 1990, he was awarded an OBE, and in 1998 he was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO). He died in 2010 aged 82.
Book
Joy Harington produced a tie-in book for the series, which was published as a hardback by Brockhampton Press of Leicester in 1956. A paperback version came out in 1963, produced by Hodder, which sold for five shillings. It was also published in the USA by Doubleday. The book had a foreword by BBC Director-General Sir Ian Jacob. A review by the Times Educational Supplement read: “Parents and Teachers are urged to put this altogether remarkable work into the hands of their children and then read it themselves … Its publication is an event of incalculable importance.”
Legacy
Although designed for children, the series also captivated adults and achieved the highest audience since the Coronation. “Jesus of Nazareth” won the 1956 Guild of Television Producers and Directors award (a precursor to BAFTA), the first time it had been presented for a children’s serial. Viewers wrote to the BBC wanting it to be repeated. Fortunately, the live transmissions had been recorded, so it was rebroadcast over Holy Week in 1957 and again in 1958, but this time without the prologue.
The series inspired Joy Harington to produce a follow-up series called “Paul of Tarsus”, which was broadcast in 1960. Later, in 1977, ITV produced its own mini-series, also called “Jesus of Nazareth”.
The 1956 production remains a landmark as the first British screen Jesus. It blended reverence, innovation, and gospel truth for a generation, and paved the way for others to do similar things, up to the current popularity of “The Chosen”.
