Liverpool Nativity

The first thing I thought of was the Manchester Passion from last year, and immediately I started to compare things in my memory. With Liverpool being the European Capital of Culture next year (2008) I suppose they had to do something. This was again screened on BBC3 and put the Nativity into a modern setting. A sleazy, power drunk city official as Herod (Herodius - a woman), an asylum seeker as Joseph, homeless people as shepherds and so on.

I applaud anything that tells the story of Christ in any way, who can know what a modern version will trigger in modern people minds, or what the Holy Spirit can use to spark thoughts. So this is no exception, thanks to the BBC and the people of Liverpool for the presentation. In Christmas television terms this is a really good start to Christmas.

There were for me some problems with the adaption. The timescale from the visit of the angel Gabriel, through to the pregnancy beginning to show, and then on to the birth appear to cover just a few days. There was no sense of time passing, no journey for the couple to make. This took the edge off what the couple must have felt and experienced, and left you wondering about why the birth story is so important. Then there was the usual problem of the Magi at the manger (a supermarket trolley - that was a nice touch. I'll go into Tesco tomorrow and ask for a manger!) which is not really supported by scripture.

There was certainly no shirking the acknowledgment that Jesus was the saviour of the world, and a revolutionary, but the inclusion of Imagine, with the line 'imagine there no heaven ...' when we had just been presented with Gabriel as the commentator was a little strange. Where do people think angels come from I wonder?

There is also the small criticism of many of the players, who were off-key, not sufficiently amplified, and unsure of their lines in some cases.

The verdict has to be positive though, it was good to see, and better to hear it had excellent ratings. "BBC3's ambitious attempt to re-create a modern day nativity on the streets of Liverpool was rewarded with more than 700,000 viewers last night." Follow the link to read more.

What next? London to host a pre-construction of the apocalypse - before or after the 2012 olympics?