Apparitions is religion’s best TV outing in years
Posted by Martin Hoscik on December 6, 2008 · 9 Comments
I’ve previously vented my frustration at the portrayal of the working class on TV, especially the dreadful EastEnders which portrays a world of lazy, violent, spiteful cuckolds who somehow manage to spend all day in the pub with no visible income and no obvious health implications, but there’s another group perhaps even less well treated by TV writers: Christians.
Whereas many shows will go out of their way to be nice about non-Christian faiths, the few Christian characters on TV tend to be of the slightly obsessive/lecturing kind - Jehovah’s opposing transplants and transfusions, Dot Cotton in EastEnders - than everyday people who happen to have an inner core of faith which helps them through their day.
We may be slowly turning away from religion and the teachings of the bible rightly have less of a hold on legislation than was historically the case but this is, despite what TV would have us believe, still a largely Christian country
Even as a non-believer, it’s been great to see BBC One’s Apparitions portray Christianity not as something to be sniggered at, mocked or ashamed of, but a source of strength and courage.
With the involvement of Martin Shaw and Joe ‘Ultraviolet’ Ahearne I expected a lot from the series (probably brave of me after the rubbish we were served up by the respective creators of Merlin and Bonekickers) and I’m pleased to say I’m delighted with the result.
Most TV priests only have the job because the show’s (especially in soaps) ‘bully’ and ‘brassy’ quotas are full and as far as the plot implications are concerned, it would generally make no difference if the character ran the local cake shop instead.
Not so in Apparitions, where faith and Jacob’s position as priest is central to the plot, possibly for the first time since Don Henderson’s character in The Paradise Club and that’s almost 20 years old.
Frankly it’s a mystery how it’s taken so long for TV to show religion outside of comedy vicars, Songs of Praise or An Island Parish (great series though that is).
All too often the BBC wimps out of challenging audiences, I suspect because they like to have shows their commercial operation can easily flog to the US, so the result is often nonsense such as Robin Hood, Merlin and Bonekickers. On the other hand Apparitions requires a lot of the audience and despite the fantastical elements of the plots has a gravitas and credibility lacking from these disappointing non-starters.
For some reason Apparitions has been quite weakly trailed and promoted in stark contrast to obviously weaker shows (yes, those three again) which is quite worrying to this drama fan.
We’ve a few more weeks left to go and I have no idea how the series is going to end but I’ll be disappointed if there’s not a second run for a show which is so different, and so much better, than most of BBC One’s current output.
BTW, if you’ve missed the show there’s an upcoming DVD release which can be pre-ordered from the seenit store.
I’ve really taken to this show, even though I regard myself as being agnostic, I think it has an overall theme of good versus evil which would strike a note with anyone no matter what their faith.
I’m particularly interested to find out what happens to Michael who has been hounded by demons since being exorcised by Father Jacob. You really empathize with this poor man who so wants to be good despite the temptation being thrown at him time and time again.
It’s been compelling viewing, and I really hope that a second series is commissioned.
Though Christians may be the largest in terms of numbers, the non Christian religions like Hinduism and Islam seem to have more active,practicing members in Britain.
Who are Jehovahs. Do you mean Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mr Martin Hoscik? Oh, and by the way, where did you get your information from that they do not accept transplants? Remember, it was the sort of talk you make that helped to cause a lot of deaths to Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups in Nazi concentration camps.
I hope you do not mind me mentioning this to you. I am sure you are an educated man.
Hi Paul
Congratulations on missing the entire point of the article.
Nowhere did I say Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse transplants, I stated quite clearly that that that’s how they are often presented on TV.
You’ll make less of a berk of yourself if you stop equating your inability to follow a simple train of thought with the motives behind the holocaust…
The TV show ‘Apparitions’ is the best of its kind. Compulsive and compelling viewing - not to be missed. Very believable and deeply thought provoking. It gripped us from start to finish. I can’t wait for the second series.
Well done Martin Shaw and Joe Ahearne.
Gillian
We’ll be lucky if there’s another series despite it being acres better than most of the Beeb’s drama output.
TPTB put the show up against celebrity jungle and it lost the ratings war too many weeks in a row so this will probably end up one of the unfortunate casualties of the BBC’s increasing obsession with ratings and ‘accessible’ programming.
I’m afraid I have to agree with Craig… the BBC are obsessed with ratings and “yoof” programing
You have to ask why they never plugged Apparitions in the same way they did Bonekickers or Merlin - I for one can’t recall having seen one trailer for it
@Gillian, Apparitions is one of the best shows of the year but the BBC seem to have bottled out of supporting it - as Martin P says there were few trails and promos for the show and no ‘narrative repeat’ such the ones Merlin and Spooks get.
The show has all the ingredients to become a staple of the schedule and the final episode acted as a decent setup for a second run, I just hope the BBC are brave enough to re-commission it.
I loved this show, way better than Spooks, with its predictable morality tales. Apparitions is the best BBC drama for 20 years!