Saturday, December 22, 2007

The Liverpool Nativity & Christmas TV

For principled Luddites like me who refuse to go digital (for reasons I won't bore you with), the Liverpool Nativity is being aired on terrestrial TV on Sunday at 10.45pm on BBC1. See what LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) thought of it here.

Whilst I'm here, some other Christmas TV highlights

Pirates of the Caribbean 1, Christmas Eve BBC1 8.30pm. A plot centred around an everlasting curse, broken only by the shedding of the blood of an innocent associated with the guilty parties. Or a cracking bit of slapstick. Or both. Never mind the in-depth discussion of morality (is the Pirate Code rules or guidelines), and Keira Knightly.

Little Town of Bethlehem Christmas Eve. ITV1 11.15pm . If you can't get to a late night service, a chance to see how Bethlehem's Christians are celebrating Christmas.

Doctor Who Christmas Day BBC1 6.50pm. Apart from being the 2nd best thing on TV this year (after Life on Mars), it's yet another Doctor Who with 'angel' baddies, following on from David Tennants impersonation of Jesus at the finale of the last series. Russell Davies tries to convince us he's an average guy by making soft porn for BBC3, but Doctor Who, like most of the fantasy genre, is bursting with spiritual resonances.

Holby City 27th Dec 8.00pm BBC1. Holby has eclipsed even Eastenders for its depression quotient in recent times, but this looks like fun: 'It's a Wonderful Life' for the end-of-his-tether Elliot (incidentally, Paul Bradley playing exactly the same harassed nice guy he played in Eastenders).

Extreme Pilgrim Jan 4th 9pm BBC2 Peter Owen Jones (self-styled Indiana Jones in a dog collar) gets beaten up by Shaolin monks in the quest for spiritual depth.

Plus a whole load of films shown much too late for their own good: The Good the Bad and the Ugly, the Royal Tenenbaums, Galaxy Quest, The Count of Monte Cristo (the superb Jim Caviezel version). The video will be working overtime.

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