The decision to have the characters speak in contemporary colloquial English was, by itself, the cause of much disquiet among those more accustomed to Jesus and his followers using the polished and formal words of the King James Bible.
[citation needed] In the event, although it continued to be criticised by conservative Christians—one group going so far as to proclaim the Fall of Singapore in February 1942 to be a sign of God's displeasure with the series[1]—The Man Born to Be King was generally considered a great success, both as drama and as biblical representation.
It starred John Westbrook as Jesus, Gabriel Woolf, Denys Blakelock, Denise Bryer, Trevor Martin, Norman Shelley and Robert Eddison.
[citation needed] The Raymond Raikes production reduced the episodes from one hour to forty-five minutes, and condensed the casts in various ways—for instance by making The Evangelist, the narrator figure, the same voice as John the disciple (an identification strongly supported by the text of the fifth play).
[citation needed] Heron Carvic, originally suggested by the writer, played Caiaphas in every version of the cycle (as well as in the broadcast of Sayers' Lichfield Passion The Just Vengeance in 1947).