...and a blasphemous new year

The BBC have had a strange Christmas season this year.

They began advent by narrowly avoiding prosecution for blasphemy, following a case brought by Christian Voice over their 2005 screening of 'Jerry Springer: The Opera'. Having made a heroic stand for freedom of artistic expression in the courts, they then immediately threw it out of the window by voluntarily choosing to censor out the word 'faggot' from the popular Christmas hit 'Fairytale of New York'. The late Kirsty MacColl's acerbic lyrics were only saved by a public outcry and subsequent climbdown by the bosses of Radio 1 (the fact that Radio 2 had continued to play the song in full couldn't have helped much either).

All this merely goes to demonstrate what most of us already knew. Blasphemy laws (or their modern descendants, political correctness regulations) have never had much to do with protecting God from insult. They do however have everything to do with guarding the sensibilities of the current ruling elite. Whether 17th century ecclesiarchs or 21st century liberal authoritarians, the message is clear: you challenge the official view of the world at your peril.

In light of all this, I was intrigued to see what noted atheist Russell Davies would serve up for the eagerly awaited Doctor Who Christmas Special. Certainly the visually lavish offering was short on peace and goodwill (killer angels very much in evidence), and we were denied the satisfaction of moral justice (the bad guys didn't win, but most of the good guys didn't make it either). Lines like "She's just atoms, doctor... an echo of the ghost of consciousness" and "if you could decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster" are familar atheist mantras. Yet in spite of this, Davies portrays a world in which good and evil are very real and actions have clear moral consequences. And as the character Astrid chooses to sacrifice her own life in order that humanity might live, we are presented with a parable of redemption that is about as biblically rooted as they come.

Kylie Minogue as a 'type' of Christ?? To quote my girls' other TV favourite of this Christmas, The Railway Children, "Very beautiful and wonderful things do happen, don't they? And we live most of our lives in the hope of them."