Tell Us the Good News
In America, the Gospel is preached over the television airwaves by evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart , eager to win the hearts, minds and dollars of their audience for Christ.
Can it, will it happen here? Jim Woolsey hopes so. He has sold the Jimmy Swaggart telecast to 148 countries. Now he wants to bring it to Britain. Hard on his heels are fervent British companies, with their own productions, who believe the BBC and IBA have sold viewers short on religion. Until now the costs have been too high for individual enterprise. But will the growth of cable and satellite mean the price is now right for the prophets of the electronic Gospel to enter the sitting rooms of the nation?
Rosemary Hartill examines religious television today and asks whether change is in the air.
Film cameraman DAVID SOUTH Film editor MIKE ROBOTHAM Producer DAVID WILLCOCK
Everyman editor JANE DRABBLE