A Passion for Churches

A Passion for Churches (1974)

A Celebration of the C. of E. with John Betjeman

Sir John Betjeman visits and explains the architecture of various churches in the Diocese of Norwich. Among those visited: Sandringham church on the Queen's private estate, the Holy House of Our Lady of Walsingham and Norwich Cathedral.

Date of release
1974-12-07
Runtime
49m
Genres
TV Movie, Documentary
Director
Edward Mirzoeff

Casting

Interesting facts

A Passion for Churches is a 1974 BBC television documentary written and presented by the then Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman and produced and directed by Edward Mirzoeff. Commissioned as a follow-up to the critically acclaimed 1973 documentary Metro-land, the film offers Betjeman's personal poetic record of the various rituals taking place throughout the Anglican Diocese of Norwich and its churches in the run-up to Easter Sunday using the framing device of the Holy sacraments.

Production

Following the success of the 1973 film Metro-land, which documented life in suburban London, Edward Mirzoeff was commissioned to create a new documentary with John Betjeman. Mirzoeff noticed that aside from suburban themes, the Church of England was the other major influence on Betjeman's poetry.

Following this early proposal, Mirzoeff and Betjeman realised that a study of the whole Church would be too ambitious, and instead decided to set the film within one diocese. Betjeman initially suggested the Diocese of Southwark, owing to a friendship with the then-Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood. Mirzoeff was not keen, given that Southwark was primarily an urban diocese.

Film editor Ted Roberts suggested the Diocese of Norwich, as Norfolk is noted for the density of its medieval churches in a variety of urban, coastal and rural locations. In addition, Betjeman was close friends with Lady Wilhelmina "Billa" Harrod (to whom he had once been engaged), who resided at The Old Rectory, Holt.

The documentary was shot on 16 mm colour film by cameraman John McGlashan, who had also worked on the BBC's M.R. James series of adaptations A Ghost Story for Christmas, of which the early installments were entirely filmed in Norfolk (Betjeman was a fan of Jamesian ghost stories, and often read them to the crew while travelling to locations).

After deciding against the original "Failed in Divinity" preface, it was decided to open the film with Betjeman remembering a Norfolk rowing holiday from his youth in which his father pointed out the tower of St Peter's church in Belaugh. This moment, he said, led to his lifelong "passion for churches", a phrase that would eventually form the title of the film.

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