I'm surprised to be posting this, but The Nativity on BBC1 is EXCELLENT

[WilfShelf]

Me being a fairly strident atheist and all.

But bloody hell , it is the most marvellous television. Great acting, great scripting (obv the story was sorted some time back...), good balance of magic and truthfulness.

The kids have been gripped too.

And, it has the divine Andrew Buchan in it too.

I loved it - thought it was very, very well done and I loved the way it didn't depict them all as psycho idiots.

I'm a christian and believe the "story" - it was just brilliantly thought provoking to watch compared to reading it in the bible.

I have recorded it, looking forward to watching it!

Ooh, you too, Wilfy! (I think I sent you a fetching Christmas email of the Inferiorettes with some sheep, btw.)

I have just watched the first two episodes, which I missed, on I-player. And then the final ending again.

I cried. Just a little bit.

I cried too.

Also I loved:

the unnamed woman who came in to help deliver (and that slight wondering if she, too, was an angel)

the way the utter and magical fragility of all new babies was so much a feature of the worshipping. When Mary said 'he is the light of the world' and aforementioned woman smiled and agreed

the very clear political underpinning.

(Also the fact it had Peter Capaldi and Art Malik...)

Hi m inferior, will check mailbox...

Anyhow. Let's talk about Herod . What was he afflicted with? Other than nastiness, obv.

D'you think it was syphilis? He looked both ridden with sores and bonkers. VG mad staring eyes.

nothing documented; dramatic license I think

Did you notice how the VGMSEs lit up at the moment of Jesus' birth, in manner slightly reminiscent of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings when he's finally clocked what's going on?

what are vgmses?

VG mad staring eyes.

lol no I didn't notice that!

I've just realised that they cast the magi's story totally wrong though; they saw Herod before going to Bethlehem cos Herod asked them to return to him, telling him where Jesus was to be found according to the bible....

oh well!

ROFL at Sauron. Yes. His deranged stare was great.

I loved this. Absolutely brilliant television. It made the story seem so real.

Can't wait to watch it.

Thanks for posting.

Dd1 has been watching and is totally religious now (was a little bit before)...

Not attested in the Bible, but Josephus documented Herod's health:

"Josephus wrote that Herod's final illness ? sometimes named as "Herod's Evil" ? was excruciating. From Josephus' descriptions, some medical experts propose that Herod had chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's gangrene. Modern scholars agree he suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia. More recently, others report that the visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms." From wikipedia

ds and I have been watching this while dh was at work and we have both loved it! ds was completely entranced from beginning to end.

Who had tears when the camera cut to the face of the clearly very young baby asleep all swaddled. it took me right back to my baby boys,...sniff, sniff!

I was thinking about this (I don't get out much) and realising that in fact I don't think the woman was an angel; because so much of the emphasis, here, was on humanity and on love. Thomas' love for his son and his wife. Joseph's love for Mary, and hers for him. There was a great amount of love and respect between the Magi (whom I thought were utterly fabulous, and not just because one of them was Peter Capaldi - a touch of the Pratchett Academicals there).

Blessed be the poor. Quite.

The thought that she was an angel never occurred to me. I found myself wondering where he'd found her, and how much of a social outcast was she already - given that helping Mary would obviously make her persona non grata?

I got the impression that she wasn't an outcast: simply someone kind. But I may be wrong, of course. (I usually am.)

I loved the way Joseph didn't have a Massive Revelation: the birth of a baby was enough for him, quite simply, even without the shepherds and the magi.

The tenderness in the oldest Magus towards the baby was lovely.

Yes. Very human. And it, ahem, explained a lot of things rather well [that's the Soap Writer for ya]. Like why Mary and Joseph were turned away, which was very plausible and I had never really thought about all that much.

I thought the midwife was signalled as a loose woman (head uncovered, jewellery) - the only one untouched by the stories of Mary's supposed adultery?

See, purple and I agree.