A Hard Road to Heaven
Last Sunday in St Peter 's, Rome, the Pope declared John Ogilvie to be a saint. Who was John Ogilvie ? The first half of the programme reconstructs the trial, torture and death of this 17th-century priest. The Last Days of John Ogilvie written by JOHN PREBBLE director ALAN cooke withand
John Ogilvie was hanged in 1615. Ever since then the Roman Catholic Church has been investigating the claim to his sanctity, but it has taken the inexplicable cure of a dying man to satisfy them that Ogilvie is in heaven.
Peter France walks the corridors of power in the Vatican and finds out how a saint is made; meets the man whose cure from terminal cancer has been declared a miracle, investigates just how miraculous it really was, and asks: was it John Ogilvie who cured this man of cancer?
Producer BILL NICHOLSON Editor PETER ARMSTRONG