Credit where it is due. Up until yesterday the Channel 4 series History of Christianity has been rubbish, but last night’s documentary on the Reformation was a superlative piece of intellectual television. Scintillating visual images were combined with original insights in a way that had real integrity (you might not agree with everything that was said, but you couldn’t really fault it on grounds of logic).
The documentary was presented by the unfashionable Ann Widdicombe, and we saw her short dumpy figure and inquiring expression appearing in a succession of dramatic settings (parades of burning crosses, ravishing Renaissance architecture, dark priests’ holes in English country houses). Her wheezing slightly-asthmatic voice (with its Joyce Grenfell tinge of authority) told you everything you needed to know about this complex and contradictory period. One of the most stimulating programmes I have seen in a long while.
You can see the programme: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/christianity-a-history/episode-guide/series-1/episode-5
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