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Writer Frank Deasy and stars James Nesbitt, Ben Daniels and Joseph Mawle tell Serena Davies about a revisionist retelling of the final week in the life of Christ

Starting on Palm Sunday and concluding on Easter Sunday, BBC1 is retelling the story, in four hour-long instalments, of the last week in the life of Jesus Christ. In this new version, Mary Magdalene isn’t a prostitute, the character of Mary, mother of Jesus, has been inspired by a modern Irish schoolteacher, and Caiaphas – the Jewish High Priest who asked Pontius Pilate to crucify Christ – comes across as a surprisingly likeable fellow.

This big-budget, painstakingly researched drama will convey the Easter story from three different points of view: that of Jesus and the disciples, that of Caiaphas, and that of Pilate. If the characters emerge differently from how they come across in the Gospels, it is because scriptwriter Frank Deasy (the Emmy award-winning writer of the final episode of Prime Suspect) and his cast, which includes James Nesbitt (Murphy’s Law) as Pilate and Ben Daniels (The State Within) as Caiaphas, have been at pains to anchor the story in historical realism.

James Nesbitt stars as Pontius Pilate
“This is the week in which Jesus moves from being a relatively unknown preacher from Galilee to being a defining figure in Western culture,” says Deasy. “It’s quite a tale. And the way we’ve tried to do it is to really explore what was going on.

“Why was what Jesus was saying and doing in Jerusalem so incendiary during that week of Passover? Why was it politically and theologically so contentious for the Jewish temple priests? And what was the Roman Pilate’s point of view, as he tried to manage this unruly city state during the busiest religious festival of the year?” The effect of Deasy’s use of multiple viewpoints, says Ben Daniels, is to “take what we know and shine a new light on it. When I first read the script I thought anything might happen. Jesus might not have been crucified. It’s that thing when you watch Romeo and Juliet and you think, ‘Maybe she’ll wake up’. If the story’s well told, you think it can go in any direction.”

Where Deasy has taken a revisionist approach to the characters, it has been carefully thought through. The Gospels never describe Mary Magdalene as a prostitute – that was an interpretation of later eras – and scholars now believe she may have been a wealthy supporter of Jesus instead. While taking into consideration the trials Jesus’s mother endured (Mary is played here by the superb Penelope Wilton), Deasy says he has given her some of the same maternal toughness he sees in his own mother, an Irish schoolteacher.

And as for the much-maligned Caiaphas, historians have discovered that he presided over an exceptionally long era of peace in Jerusalem. Many of his contemporaries would have viewed Caiaphas as a good leader even if, as Ben Daniels puts it, “every other interpretation we’ve seen has pictured him either as a very unreligious sort of man – or virtually satanic.”

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At the heart of this production, of course, is Jesus. He is played by Joseph Mawle, a relative unknown compared to some of his co-stars, but an actor who achieved acclaim in BBC2’s 2006 crime thriller Soundproof. Mawle is 33 – supposedly the same age as Jesus when He was crucified.

Understandably, Mawle was somewhat overawed to get the part. He describes the period leading up to filming as, “not quite 40 days in the wilderness, but a couple of months of panic.” Which is not a million miles away from the response James Nesbitt had to the project. “It was exciting to get a chance to retell the story,” he says. “Even if you do have the weight of 2,000 years of history upon you.”

To add to the pressure, the elaborate shoot was filmed in Morocco at the height of summer, with temperatures touching 45 degrees. “On one of the first big days of shooting,” remembers Mawle, “we were doing a scene in the market-place. We had 500 sheep, 300 birds, two camels, 19 main cast, hundreds of extras, 170 crew…” Sadly, not all the stars were cooperative. “We had a lot of trouble with the donkey,” Mawle chuckles. “It had a mind of its own. If it had a voice, I’m sure it would have been Eddie Murphy’s [who voiced the character of Donkey in the Shrek films]. It trod on every single one of the disciples’ feet at one time or another!”

The donkey was evidently unaware of the significance of the story it was helping to tell. Frank Deasy, however, hopes The Passion will restore a sense of holiness to the tale that its most recent celluloid retelling, Mel Gibson’s “brutal” The Passion of the Christ, decidedly lacked. “I suppose if that film influenced me in any way it was to reach for a more spiritual and a more tender Jesus,” he says. “A more loving Jesus.”

“That sounds terribly sugary – and I wish I hadn’t said it now,” Deasy adds, with a laugh. But the the novelty of Deasy’s version of the Passion is confined to subtle shifts of emphasis and characterisation – unlike Gibson’s visual onslaught of blood and guts. And that will strike many viewers as a blessed relief in itself.

HE'S been on the telly for an incredible eight decades, and his catchphrases have become the stuff of legend.

But if you think Bruce Forsyth has made a career out of being himself on-screen then the veteran showman has some news for you. He gets fed up just like the rest of us.

The 80-year-old star says: "Yes, I do get a bit down at times. The 'showbusiness' Brucie is really an enlargement of my real nature, but I really and truly couldn't be that person all the time, because if I'm honest, he'd drive me crackers.

"I have to put him away, and bring him out when he's needed."

It's one of the perks of being a comedian, a dancer and an all-round entertainer - there's always a gag or some other moment of mirth to bring a smile to his face.

That, says Bruce Forsythe OBE, is how he chases the blues away.

And so long as he's still able to make his audiences laugh as well as himself, then he'll put off any notions of retirement.

He says: "When I can't pull an audience, or when I get the feeling that Iamno longer capable of what I once was capable of, then I wouldn't need anyone else to tell me to pack it in.

"If I can't give people what I feel that they deserve, then that will be the time to retire gracefully.

"No-one will have to break it to me gently - I will instinctively know.

"There is no sadder sight in showbusiness than a performer who lives in the past and who clings to former glories.

"So when it happens, I'm going to make a clean break - and finish. But at the moment, no."

But before even thinking about that, he has yet another major gig to look forward to - his 80th birthday party, which will be screened on BBC1.

The stars will come out to pay tribute to one of the heavyweights of light entertainment, as Bruce Forsyth celebrates his 80th birthday.

His Strictly Come Dancing pal Tess Daly hosts the event, which sees LizaMinelli and JoolsHolland performing live, mimic Jon Culshaw paying a special tribute to Brucie's beloved catchphrases and Paul O'Grady, Miss Piggy and golf mate Ronnie Corbett all lining up to wish him well.

But the biggest cheer of the night will be saved for the moment oldtimer Brucie proves he's still the best in showbusiness by joining the cast of Billy Elliot for a tap dance extravaganza.

He's still got it, even as an Octogenarian. Brucie might be best known to a younger generation of Saturday night TV fans as the face of Strictly Come Dancing.

But older telly addicts will, of course, remember him fondly from his days as the host of ITV's Play Your Cards Right, The Generation Game and The Price Is Right.

He first achieved celebrity on the massively popular Sunday Night At The London Palladium in the late 1950s.

But his first all-singing alldancing TV performance came aged just 11 on BBC talent show Come And Be Televised.

The young man went down a storm and later found himself touring the country in summer seasons, pantos and circuses.

He was particularly renowned for his live performance as a strong man, and has also been a TV presenter in the USA and even starred in 80s sitcom Slinger's Day and 1968 movie Star! with Julie Andrews.

There have also been roles in movies Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the bizarrely entitled Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

More to him than the legendary 'thinker' pose, singing, dancing and catchphrases then.

Despite what he has acheived in TV since then, some of his fondest memories are his earliest ones.

He says: "The old Sunday Night At The Palladium Show, yes - I loved doing that, and I still love live television.

"I took over fromthe late Tommy Trinder, and I still remember the first one that I did.

"There was Jewell and Warris, the most successful double act of their day, the singers Anne Shelton and David Whitfield, and a young comic called Peter Sellers.

"They were all so nice to me, and their encouragement was an enormous help. I started off doing it for £85 a week, but because I made a success of it my pay went up, not long after, to £1000 a week, which was unheard of in TV terms those day."

And to most of us, it still is.

The first time he knew he had 'made it' was when he saw his name in TV's most hated and TV's most loved polls.

He says: "I'd been listed in two polls in the red-top newspapers.

One was for the people on TV that you most loved, and the other was for the people you most hated.

"It was hilarious. I rang my old mate, the comic and writer Barry Cryer and I said 'Barry, I've cracked it!'"

Back in those days, people had more respect, claims Bruce, and punctuality was a prized characteristic.

"Things that make me angry are slovenliness, unprofessionalism and political correctness for the sake of it," he says.

"People who are late for appointments. If ever I am late for anything, business, work, whatever, I always apologise, and if someone is late meeting me, then I also expect an apology. It's just good manners - and a throwback to what I might call the show business etiquette of my day. I think I prefer life, and show business, as it was when I was in my prime."

Life and showbusiness might have changed, but one thing remains constant to thricemarried Bruce - his retreats to the golf course.

Along with Jimmy Tarbuck and Ronnie Corbett, he's been one of the regulars on the pro-celeb charity circuit over the years.

He says: "I play a lot of golf - we live in Virginia Water, just outside London, and the Wentworth Club is literally at the bottom of our garden.

"I play at least three times a week, off a handicap of 12. I've had apassionate love affair with golf ever since I can remember.

"When you're on the course, you can just switch off and get away from everything - although that little white ball can also really put you in your place if you are getting too uppity about things.

"Golf has been a great companion when I've needed time off."

Bruce met his wife Wilnelia Merced - a former Miss World and 30 years his junior - in 1980.

His first marriage was to Penny Calvert in 1953 with whom he had three daughters. Two decades later he wed Anthea Redfern, a hostess on the Generation Game, with whom he had two more children.

Both marriages ended in divorce but he is clearly now content with his life with Wilnelia, with whom he has a son.

He has also just become a great grandfather, and spends a lot of time in his other home in Puerto Rico, whereWilnelia comes from.

He says: "She's as stunning and wonderful today as she was back then - one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever met.

"She has given me a real sense of peace, and she was what I was waiting for. We spend the winter with all her family, my in-laws.

"I'm very much at home there, and of course it's a great bonus that I can go for a stroll there without someone shouting 'Nice to see you, to see you...' The joke can wear a little thin..."
By Jack Breslin