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ANGRY: Protesters outside the BBC
Bishop joins protest over Springer opera
Andrew Nott and Blaise Tapp10/ 1/2005
THE Bishop of Manchester will complain fiercely to the BBC after watching the highly-controversial production of Jerry Springer - the Opera.
The Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch found the BBC2 version of the hit West End show "gratuitously offensive" and said it "went beyond the boundary of taste and decency."
His sentiments were shared by protesters, who camped outside the corporation's Manchester headquarters, in Oxford Road, during the broadcast on Saturday night.
As well as similar protests up and down the country, about 45,000 protesters contacted the BBC before the show was screened.
An estimated 300 phoned the BBC immediately after it was screened, with half the callers ringing in with positive comments about the opera, which attracted 1.8 million viewers - 20 per cent more than is usually expected for that time of night.
The Bishop, who last week saw his request to see the programme before it was aired rejected by the BBC, watched the opera, starring former Starsky and Hutch actor David Soul.
He said: "Following the transmission of Jerry Springer - the Opera last night, my previously expressed concerns about some of its content being shown uncut on television - rather than in the theatre - especially by a public service broadcaster, are, if anything, stronger.
Gratuitously offensive
"In particular, the brief scene in which Eve clearly attempts to masturbate Jesus - shown more closely by the television camera than would be the case for the theatre audience - was gratuitously offensive and went beyond the boundary of taste and decency.
"Other words, especially those spoken to Jesus, together with audience reaction, crossed for me, as a television viewer, the boundary between satire and ridicule. I will be taking up these matters with the BBC and others this week."
A spokesman for the BBC said: "We are pleased with the audience figures and we had a lot of appreciative calls from people who wanted to make a point."
The script includes hundreds of expletives and one scene in which a Jesus figure is ridiculed has been described as "blasphemy".
The protests follow quickly on the heels of violent action by protesting Sikhs in Birmingham that closed a play they considered offensive to their religion.
Among Saturday's protesters was the UK Asian Christian Fellowship who had announced their determination to press the BBC to cancel the showing. Yaqub Masih, general secretary of the UK Asian Christian Fellowship, said: "Asian Christians feel very strongly about this insult to our Saviour and our faith and we shall support prayer and protest against this blasphemy.
"Our parents thought they were coming to a Christian country, and to find the Christian faith itself deliberately insulted and the BBC going out of its way to offend us is distressing."
Christian Voice, a national prayer group, said they would mount a private prosecution against the BBC for alleged blasphemy.
Should the BBC have shown Jerry Springer - The Opera? Have your say.
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11/01/2005 at 00:00
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