BBC scriptwriter calls for more religion on prime-time TV

The BBC should be covering religious affairs in its primetime slots, according to a senior former scriptwriter for the corporation.

Tony Jordan, who has written more than 250 episodes of the popular television soap EastEnders for BBC1, made the call ahead of the screening on Monday of his drama The Ark, about Noah.

Jordan, who in 2010 wrote the acclaimed The Nativity for BBC1, told the Radio Times that if The Ark is also well received he plans to pitch a series of six biblical dramas to the BBC aimed at prime time. “That is where religion should be,” he said.

The comments follow the news in January that the BBC had axed the post of commissioning editor for religious television programmes.

That move was criticised by Roger Bolton, the former presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Sunday who presents Feedback on the station. “Commissioners are at the heart [of the organisation]; they are people who know about the production of religion and ethical programmes,” he said.

Mr Bolton is the author of the interview with Mr Jordan in the Radio Times. He writes of Mr Jordan’s assertion that the BBC should place more religion in prime time: “It is to be hoped that the BBC agrees, although the recent decision to get rid of a commissioning editor exclusively concerned with religion and ethics and replace him with someone who has to look after history, business and science as well, doesn’t inspire confidence.”