Contact:
Julian Mattocks
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mattocks@pressetext.com
| Pressbox | 
|
London (pte030/07.04.2005/12:15) - The BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk has sold a controversial cartoon sitcom about a pope, which was axed by TV chiefs on the grounds that it would offend Catholics, to an Italian broadcaster. As the Media Guardian http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk reports, "Popetown" was dropped by the BBC after generating thousands of complaints from Catholics but has been sold abroad by the corporation's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. The cartoon, which stars Ruby Wax as a fictional pope who bounces around the Vatican on a pogo stick and is surrounded by a gang of backstabbing cardinals, has now been shelved by Italian broadcaster Canal Jimmy Italy following the death of John Paul II. The cable channel, which is part of the French pay-TV giant Canal Plus, had bought the series at the beginning of this year, but pulled it from the schedules.
The cartoon has also been sold to the New Zealand broadcaster, the C4 channel, and will also be offered to overseas networks at global programme sales fair Mip-TV in Cannes next week. However, it has failed to find a home on another channel in the UK since it was dropped by BBC3 in October last year. According to a spokeswoman for BBC Worldwide, "Popetown" will be one of a number of BBC shows on sale to foreign broadcasters at Cannes next week. "It is part of our catalogue but it is not one of our headline shows," she said. The BBC are hoping that overseas sales of the shows will help to claw back some of the reported 2.4 million pound cost of making the 10-part show.
Billed by the BBC as an "office comedy set in the Vatican", the cartoon portrayed a pope and his immediate entourage as a bunch of childish, bickering backstabbers. However, the show came under fire from the Archbishop of Birmingham whose press secretary, Peter Jennings, said that he did not want the BBC to treat Catholicism differently to Judaism or Islam. "At the moment the Catholic Church is seen as an easy game," he said. Despite being in preparation for more than a year, "Popetown", also known as "Holy Smoke", was pulled at the last minute by the BBC3 controller, Stuart Murphy. According to Murphy, "the comic impact of the delivered series does not outweigh the potential offence it will cause".
(end)
|
|
