A Passion for Churches is a 1974 BBC television documentary written and presented by the then Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman and produced and directed by Edward Mirzoeff.

Commissioned as a follow-up to the critically acclaimed 1973 documentary Metro-land, the film offers Betjeman's personal poetic record of the various rituals taking place throughout the Anglican Diocese of Norwich and its churches in the run-up to Easter Sunday using the framing device of the Holy sacraments.

[2] Following the success of the 1973 film Metro-land, which documented life in suburban London, Edward Mirzoeff was commissioned to create a new documentary with John Betjeman.

[7] Film editor Ted Roberts suggested the Diocese of Norwich, as Norfolk is noted for the density of its medieval churches in a variety of urban, coastal and rural locations.

She was greatly involved with saving redundant churches and was personal friends with the Bishop of Norwich, Maurice Wood, and was also able to provide the crew with accommodation.

[11] The crew decided to film Betjeman revisiting this location on the River Bure, although on several occasions the poet nearly capsized his rowing boat.

[12] The production encountered difficulties with obtaining some footage; while filming a Seaman's Mission from Great Yarmouth, a wave flooded the boat, ruining the sound-recording equipment, and a sequence featuring an open-air service taking place at daybreak on Easter Sunday at the most easterly point of the UK – at Ness Point, Lowestoft – was nearly missed after the sound recordist overslept.

According to Mirzoeff, he would run sequences from the film for hours, searching for inspiration in the rhythm of the editing, sometimes sitting in a small cupboard to help himself concentrate.

[14] Betjeman's daughter, Candida Lycett Green recalls that "JB put everything into it that he could muster: the film was about all that he loved about England - its people, its church and its architecture.

"[15] Mirzoeff notes that he found writing the text for A Passion for Churches more of a strain than for his previous film since he had to take into consideration both his own beliefs and those of his friends.

[16] Mirzoeff suggests that several sequences, such as the scene about redundancy and death, provoked verse of much greater "complexity and depth" than any heard in his previous screen appearances.

After a montage of church architecture with the musical accompaniment of the barrel organ of Bressingham, the focus shifts to St Margaret's, Cley next the Sea, where Betjeman introduces the viewer to its features.

[3] At Norwich Cathedral, the centre of the diocese, he attends a Mothers' Union meeting with the Bishop, and later the institution of a new rector to the living of Holt.

[12] Betjeman explores the ruins of St Benet's Abbey before seeing its modern equivalent at a convent of Anglican nuns at the Community of All Hallows, Ditchingham.

The head of the department insisted on a screening, but was placated by the presence of the poet and Prime Minister Harold Wilson's wife, Mary, at a private showing held in November 1974, and he gave the film his approval.