[James]

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.

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