PRIEST IDOL

13 November, 2005 by The_Boss

First Episode of three to be shown on Channel 4 at 9pm Monday the 14th November 2005 It is also repeated on More 4 on the following Saturday at 8:20pm - 9:25pm.


St Mary Magdalene is the last remaining church in the former mining village of Lundwood, Barnsley. Numbers in the pews have reached crisis point with fewer than ten people coming to church every Sunday. Something's got to change or the church faces closure.

It's a story that is repeated up and down the country as the numbers regularly attending church have slipped to only one in ten. This three-part series follows attempts to save St Mary Magdalene, with 21st-century skills being used alongside more traditional approaches. The Bishop of Wakefield advertises for a dynamic new priest to turn the church around. But they are apparently in short supply as only one applicant steps forward, a young American priest.

Visiting his new parish is a shock for Father James McCaskill as his predecessor, Father David, paints a grim picture of despair, unemployment and drugs. But despite his reservations Father James takes on the task that no-one else wants. Initial attempts to get people out of the packed social club next door and into church are a failure and his first Sunday service sees only three new faces, including his mum and dad.

It's a desperate situation that calls for desperate measures and Father James decides to look outside the church for the solution. Alongside a comedian and experts in public speaking and singing, the church forms a controversial alliance with a marketing company in Leeds, who take on the task of "re-branding" the church to the people of Lundwood.

Can their radical solution work and what on Earth do the existing congregation make of it?