BBC3 produced and aired “Manchester Passion” Friday night, a live retelling of the Passion of Christ, that was set on the streets of Manchester and which featured music from local bands made good like Joy Division and Oasis.
The hype was definitely set: the Guardian published a lengthy article from the rehearsals. But I’ve heard precious little about how it actually turned out. Never mind finding any videos or torrents of the actual broadcast.
YouTube, is there anything you can’t do? So far, there are clips of Jesus singing “Love will tear us apart” at the Last Supper, and a Smiths/Morissey fest, Jesus singing “You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side”” and Judas singing “Heaven knows I’m miserable now.”
The production looks pretty raw and unplugged, a theater-on-the-fly mix of live event/procession and stage/set pieces. I cannot imagine in a million years that an American company would ever produce something like this. Instead, we get Mel Gibson.
Day that Jesus came to the Arndale Centre [guardian.co.uk]
Manchester Passion website at BBC3 [bbc.co.uk]
“Manchester Passion” on YouTube [youtube.com]
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the making of, by greg allen