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| Shoot-out in the cathedral gets the thumbs-up in Durham | Shoot-out in the cathedral gets the thumbs-up in Durham |
| (7 months later) | |
| We've just seen the results of an interesting theological discussion at Durham cathedral about whether violent death should be allowed to take place in the nave. | We've just seen the results of an interesting theological discussion at Durham cathedral about whether violent death should be allowed to take place in the nave. |
| Not the real thing; but a dramatic conclusion to the last in the latest series of BBC TV's 1960s drama Inspector George Gently which sees Martin Shaw transformed from urbane Judge John Deed into a tough 1960s police officer in the land of the Prince Bishops. | Not the real thing; but a dramatic conclusion to the last in the latest series of BBC TV's 1960s drama Inspector George Gently which sees Martin Shaw transformed from urbane Judge John Deed into a tough 1960s police officer in the land of the Prince Bishops. |
| The BBC is already ranked among the saints by the Guardian Northerner for its move to Salford (all other metropolitan media please copy), but it is also a first class purveyor of the landscape, built and human glories of the north of England. Durham cathedral (and Durham people) score very highly in this regard, and producers asked the chapter if they could combine the two with a shoot-out in the nave. | The BBC is already ranked among the saints by the Guardian Northerner for its move to Salford (all other metropolitan media please copy), but it is also a first class purveyor of the landscape, built and human glories of the north of England. Durham cathedral (and Durham people) score very highly in this regard, and producers asked the chapter if they could combine the two with a shoot-out in the nave. |
| The answer was yes and filming duly went ahead. Some 4,300,000 people watched the result at the weekend, with choristers scuttling for cover before the bullets flew. The Northern Echo, based down the Great North Road at Darlington, reports some critical reaction. Viewers in, for example, Coventry and Coalville, Leicestershire, recoiled from 'violence in a sacred place' and 'inappropriate and unethical' scenes. | The answer was yes and filming duly went ahead. Some 4,300,000 people watched the result at the weekend, with choristers scuttling for cover before the bullets flew. The Northern Echo, based down the Great North Road at Darlington, reports some critical reaction. Viewers in, for example, Coventry and Coalville, Leicestershire, recoiled from 'violence in a sacred place' and 'inappropriate and unethical' scenes. |
| The cathedral chapter feels on strong ground, however, with the very phrase 'murder in the cathedral' part of English literary history. The clergy consulted the Bishop of Durham, Rt Rev Justin Welby - a very interesting man who formerly worked in the oil industry - and the chapter drew on the tumultous history of sacred places, sanctuary and violence such as the killing of St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury cathedral in making its decision. | The cathedral chapter feels on strong ground, however, with the very phrase 'murder in the cathedral' part of English literary history. The clergy consulted the Bishop of Durham, Rt Rev Justin Welby - a very interesting man who formerly worked in the oil industry - and the chapter drew on the tumultous history of sacred places, sanctuary and violence such as the killing of St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury cathedral in making its decision. |
| Gently's plot, they decided, was a modern morality play in which good and evil were clearly shown. A spokesman tells the Echo: | Gently's plot, they decided, was a modern morality play in which good and evil were clearly shown. A spokesman tells the Echo: |
| Bad things sometimes happen in sacred places. A cathedral should be a place where issues of justice and morality can be explored both through formal worship and through culture and the performing arts. | Bad things sometimes happen in sacred places. A cathedral should be a place where issues of justice and morality can be explored both through formal worship and through culture and the performing arts. |
| Such activities also help to pay for the hugely expensive upkeep of a wonderful building. And the cathedral's Facebook page suggests that most of its readers are only too pleased for the north east of England's glories to reach a wider audience. | Such activities also help to pay for the hugely expensive upkeep of a wonderful building. And the cathedral's Facebook page suggests that most of its readers are only too pleased for the north east of England's glories to reach a wider audience. |
| Durham cathedral's own history includes a terrible episode at the end of the English Civil War when 3000 Scottish prisoners were locked in the building by Cromwellian troops and given such insufficient food, drink and warmth that an estimated 1700 died. The remainder did little better, being shipped as slaves to the American colonies. There is surely a BBC TV drama in that. | Durham cathedral's own history includes a terrible episode at the end of the English Civil War when 3000 Scottish prisoners were locked in the building by Cromwellian troops and given such insufficient food, drink and warmth that an estimated 1700 died. The remainder did little better, being shipped as slaves to the American colonies. There is surely a BBC TV drama in that. |
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