First broadcast on Sunday 12 February 1956, this BBC children’s serial was the first full-length reportage of the life of Jesus Christ to be created for television.
Starring Tom Fleming as Jesus, the show was treated as an experiment and placed in the children’s programmes on Sundays, but it attracted an adult audience.
The series began with Jesus as a boy of twelve living in an occupied country and travelling with his parents, Mary (Gwendolyn Watford) and Joseph (George Woodbridge), to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, and ended with his death and Resurrection.
The script by Joy Harrington (who also produced the series) was written in consultation with the Reverend Robert C Walton, head of schools’ religious broadcasting, and the Reverend R McKay (the BBC’s head of religious broadcasting) as an adviser.
Episodes were presented in a straightforward manner with little emphasis on the miraculous.
Some exterior sequences were shot on location in Palestine, although the episodes were mostly broadcast live from the BBC’s Ealing studios.
Jesus
Tom Fleming John the Baptist
Peter Wyngarde Pontius Pilate
Alan Wheatley Matthew
Robert Gillespie John
Michael Bryant Simon
Powys Thomas Judas Iscariot
Anthony Jacobs James
Richard Grant Andrew
John Glen Philip
Philip Guard Thomas
John Dunbar Simon Zealot
Jack Stewart Nathaniel Bartholomew
Hugh Dickson James Alphaus
John Baker Thaddeus
Alan Rolfe Caiaphas
Ewen Solon Mary Gwendolyn Watford Joseph George Woodbridge Jesus as a Boy
Richard Palmer Narrator
John Glen
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Starring Tom Fleming as Jesus, the show was treated as an experiment and placed in the children’s programmes on Sundays, but it attracted an adult audience.
