James
10-05-2004, 08:43 AM
Oh, brother, BBC sets up in monastery
By Tom Leonard, Media Editor
(Filed: 07/05/2004)
Four young professionals are being sent to live in a monastery for a new television series, the BBC said yesterday.
The company producing The Brotherhood for BBC2 is particularly keen to recruit volunteers from media and advertising for the two-month experiment.
Although the series has elements of a reality show such as Big Brother, the BBC insisted it will be a serious documentary looking at religion.
The series was commissioned by the BBC's religion and ethics department.
"It's quite a serious attempt to understand monastic life as well as being a personal spiritual journey for those involved," said a spokesman. "We want to make religion more accessible by putting real people into a monastery to see if they can understand life inside."
In a letter to potential participants, Tiger Aspect, the series producers, write: "The idea is to take people away from our hyperactive, materialistic world and get them to experience a more spiritual approach to life."
"This is not tabloid TV. The series is a serious exploration of the role that religion, god, belief and spirituality play - or don't play - in our lives."
Volunteers do not need to be Christians but Tiger Aspect said it was looking for people from a "busy, modern, fast-moving, metropolitan environment".
The series, which was commissioned by the BBC's religion and ethics department, will be shown next year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/07/nbruv07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/07/ixhome.html
By Tom Leonard, Media Editor
(Filed: 07/05/2004)
Four young professionals are being sent to live in a monastery for a new television series, the BBC said yesterday.
The company producing The Brotherhood for BBC2 is particularly keen to recruit volunteers from media and advertising for the two-month experiment.
Although the series has elements of a reality show such as Big Brother, the BBC insisted it will be a serious documentary looking at religion.
The series was commissioned by the BBC's religion and ethics department.
"It's quite a serious attempt to understand monastic life as well as being a personal spiritual journey for those involved," said a spokesman. "We want to make religion more accessible by putting real people into a monastery to see if they can understand life inside."
In a letter to potential participants, Tiger Aspect, the series producers, write: "The idea is to take people away from our hyperactive, materialistic world and get them to experience a more spiritual approach to life."
"This is not tabloid TV. The series is a serious exploration of the role that religion, god, belief and spirituality play - or don't play - in our lives."
Volunteers do not need to be Christians but Tiger Aspect said it was looking for people from a "busy, modern, fast-moving, metropolitan environment".
The series, which was commissioned by the BBC's religion and ethics department, will be shown next year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/07/nbruv07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/07/ixhome.html