In 2010, with Pope Benedict XVI coming to the UK, I interviewed award-winning film-maker Mark Dowd, whose Benedict: Trials of a Pope was being shown on BBC1 and BBC2 in advance of the visit. I wanted to know what he learned from his research in making the film. The interview was originally printed in The Church of England Newspaper and I’m posting a version to mark the Pope’s death today.
If Mark Dowd did not already have respected films behind him, critics in the press may have been gunning for him before they watched his BBC2 film, Benedict: Trials of a Pope, because Dowd is a Catholic.
He recognises the danger, especially given the Pope’s controversial reputation and British Catholics running at under ten per cent of the population, “A lot of people watching this film are not going to want to see a Catholic giving the Church an easy time,” he told me, “but on the other hand, I don’t want to do a hatchet job. So it’s quite tricky finding the right level of questioning and probing that stays on the line of respect, but still gives the audience a sense of, ‘This is an interesting programme’.”
He added, “We don’t want a love-in. If Alex Ferguson had to do a film about Manchester United Football Club, you’d be a bit worried, wouldn’t you? So where do you get the tension in the story?”
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