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BBC drops pope bashing cartoon
24/09/2004 17:18 - (SA)
London - The BBC has bowed to the demands of angry British Catholics and scrapped plans to broadcast a controversial comic cartoon lampooning the figure of the pope and the Vatican.
Popetown, which features corrupt cardinals and an infantile pope who bounces around the Vatican on a pogo stick, has faced a wave of condemnation from Catholic groups who slammed it as offensive.
Commissioned from an independent production company, it was due to have been broadcast on satellite-only entertainment channel BBC3, but it was now accepted the show was too offensive to use, the corporation said.
After "a lot of consideration and consultation", it had been decided not to show Popetown, BBC3 head Stuart Murphy said.
"Despite all the creative energy that has gone into this project and the best efforts of everyone involved, the comic impact of the delivered series does not outweigh the potential offence it will cause," he said.
The cartoon features the voice of Ruby Wax, a British-based US comedian - who is herself Jewish - as the pontiff, and that of Texan model Jerry Hall as a fame-hungry nun.
When the series was first announced, the BBC, Britain's publicly-funded state broadcaster, said it would chronicle the "insane and chaotic bureaucracy of Popetown, where cardinals are sinister, corrupt and mysteriously wealthy, and the pope is a childish 77-year-old whose every fickle whim must be indulged."
Religious leaders were aghast, and welcomed news the programme had been scrapped.
"Many Catholics view this as an irreverent, gratuitous and publicly funded attack on their faith. It is impossible to imagine a similar irreverent approach being taken to Islam or Judaism," said Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell.
- AFP
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South Africa
