Popes – real and imagined – are coming to our screens this autumn, as portrayed by Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. Joanna Moorhead looks at the actors who over the years have played the Church’s main men – and woman

Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes (2019)
As in the Vatican, so in the movies: both of autumn’s papal extravaganzas feature not one but two men who have occupied St Peter’s Chair. In this Netflix release (in cinemas 29 November), Anthony Hopkins (inset, left, with Jonathan Pryce) is heavenly as Benedict XVI, locked in an imagined series of frank exchanges with the man who will succeed him, at perhaps the most challenging time in church history. Previewed at the Telluride Film Festival, The Two Popes was acclaimed as the surprise hit of the event.

Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes (2019)
Adoration, too, for Pryce for his role (inset, right, with Hopkins), a strikingly realistic portrayal of the pre-2013 conclave Jorge Mario Bergoglio, struggling to reconcile his heartfelt work among the poor of his native Argentina with the pomp and circumstance of Benedict’s Vatican. I’d always imagined Francis would sing “Ave Maria” in the shower, but it turns out he’s whistling Abba hits. Reviews have praised Pryce for managing “to inhabit the combination of assertiveness and amiability that has turned Pope Francis into such a galvanising figure around the world”.

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