…in the UK. Of interest are a couple of upcoming projects:

W hile The Da Vinci Code was launched at the Cannes Film Festival to a critical mauling but worldwide interest, the BBC was putting the finishing touches to an ambitious project designed to tap into the clear appetite for dramatic religious themes.

It has asked Nigel Stafford-Clark, the acclaimed producer of Bleak House, to apply the same techniques he used in brilliantly adapting Dickens to make a classic, popular drama series about Christ, The Passion, primarily for BBC1, but with obvious international sales appeal. The aim is to depict anew the life of Jesus and the events leading up to his crucifixion in an intense, nightly soap-style drama, building to a climax during the Easter week of 2008. The project is backed by Peter Fincham, savvy controller of BBC1, anxious to ensure his era is marked by a memorable version of what some see as the greatest story ever told, rather than a failed Davina McCall chat show or celebrity showjumping.

And then, coming this summer, a female sequel to the acclaimed program "The Monastery"  – "The Convent" – of course:

And it is being followed (starting 14 June), again on BBC2, with The Convent, which sees four women – a reformed alcoholic, a divorced businesswoman, a bohemian poet and a mother of three – experience 40 days and nights with the enclosed Poor Clares order in Arundel; for this the same producer, Tiger Aspect, had to assemble an all-female crew.

Sani Scott, executive producer and one of the three-women crew, said: ‘This is an especially warm, loving community, very, very intimate. Men would have broken the atmosphere.’ She adds, tantalisingly, that there were some scenes of rebellion.

Adam Kemp, BBC commissioner for religion, arts and music, said: ‘I know The Monastery has had a huge catalytic effect, I knew we could take a risk with a more modern format: it works on so many different levels.’

Various links about the two monastery programs – including the filming of the US version – at the Worth Abbey website. I inquired last year as to the possibility of BBC America airing "The Monastery" and they wrote me that there were no such plans…a quick look at the website tells me that’s not changed. Too bad.