The Big Send-up

Catherine Bennett has some fun at the expense of Jane Root and The Big Read:

The Big Belief
Says Root: “This search for the nation’s favourite faith is about the BBC really throwing its power behind religion. We’ve all heard of Kabbalah, Christianity, Scientology and the rest but until now no one has ever bothered to find out which one is Britain’s best loved belief”.

With religious observance in Britain at an all-time low there could not be a better time for BBC2 to make faith a stronger part of the culture. In the run-up to a national Big Belief vote, display packs introducing religion will be sent out to churches, temples and mosques all over the country, while a dedicated website will show novice worshippers how to establish a prayer group in the faith of their choice.

To ensure that non-believers don’t feel excluded from The Big Belief, each faith will be championed in a short film made by a celebrity advocate who has never previously been associated with this form of spirituality. For example, while Jack Dee speaks up for the Rosicrucians and Sandi Toksvig makes a (tongue firmly in cheek!) case for Satanism, Protestantism will be introduced by Meera Syal, who travels to Germany for a hilarious, one-woman re-enactment of the Diet of Worms. June Whitfield fights Buddha’s corner and Graham Norton will preside over the magnificent, Easter Day finale, broadcast live from Westminster Abbey.

Three further events are described, including one in which this question comes up:

‘How will the nation’s pets vote? Will they go for JM Coetzee’s Disgrace, championed by Ann Widdecombe’s cat, Arbuthnot? Or Judith Kerr’s Mog’s Bad Thing – described by Elizabeth Hurley’s alsatian, Nico, as “A compelling insight into cat society informed by a sensual evocation of nature’s influence on the feline psyche which is the equal of anything in Colette.”