The Passion is a television drama serial produced by the BBC and HBO Films in association with Deep Indigo Productions.

Writer Frank Deasy and producer Nigel Stafford-Clark were inspired to make a drama that opened up the story beyond the "vacuum" it is often told in.

Deasy and Stafford-Clark were aided by scholar Mark Goodacre, with whom they put together an extensive research manual about the topic.

It was directed by Michael Offer on location in Morocco from 27 August to 23 October 2007, and broadcast on BBC One in four parts from 16 to 23 March 2008.

The Romans are having to deal with a small rebellion and the High Priest wants to be rid of Jesus, since he is causing a disturbance and challenging his authority.

[2] Both Deasy and Stafford-Clark looked to emulate the style of The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964) over The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004).

It attempts to introduce a world in which Christianity didn't yet exist and these precepts and concepts that are so familiar to us now, were startlingly new and really exploded on the scene during this crucial week.

He was cast in May 2007 and prepared for the role by reading "the Gospels, research papers, medical documents, endless books and prayers".

By chance, the two met in the toilets at Gatwick Airport when Powell was going on holiday with his family and Mawle was leaving for Morocco to film The Passion.

He initially did not want the part, but took it when his agent told him that Stafford-Clark was the producer; Nesbitt had enjoyed his version of Bleak House.

Mark Goodacre advised that this was the most common and effective method of crucifixion used by the Romans, and Elliot believed that "the Victorian image" did not match historical evidence; The Passion's interpretation was based on a skeleton of a crucified man that was discovered near Jerusalem in the 1960s.

The episode was introduced by BBC controller of fiction Jane Tranter to an invited audience of press and religious leaders.

The main review in The Guardian of the first episode was positive, remarking "you could watch The Passion and totally forget that this story was central to a major world religion.

[19] The Independent's Thomas Sutcliffe commented that "only the most zealously dogmatic Christian could complain that it was irreverent",[20] The Daily Telegraph's James Walton's review of the same episode praised the humanising of Pilate and Caiaphas, and felt Mawle's depiction of Jesus, despite not having the same "spell-binding effect as Robert Powell did in Jesus of Nazareth", nevertheless was "more appealingly human".

[21] Andrew Billen of The Times praised "some nice touches", but was overall more critical, calling Mawle's portrayal of Jesus too "meek, mild and hangdog".