Seaside Parish Series 1

The Director/Producer of most of the series has been Nigel Farrell, and the Bishop was in doubt that Tiger Aspect wanted to show community life as it really is, and that Nigel Farrell could be trusted to do this. For their part, the Company, also responsible for popular BBC series like The Vicar of Dibley, wanted to be sure that they did not get facts about the Church wrong.

So it was agreed that every episode, and its commentary, would be seen, in advance of transmission, by the parish priest, the Bishop and the Diocesan Communications Officer who acted as liaison officer between the church at diocesan and local level, and the Company, throughout the next seven years.

It is important to remember that there were no scripts. Tiger Aspect might have taken five or six months filming to produce 6 half hour programmes, but the Director had no idea what twists life might take over the period of their filming. As in all village life, a number of local characters quickly began to emerge, and with them story lines revolving around their lives. Those lives also reflected what was happening in Cornwall - so if jobs were hard to find, or housing hard to come by, if you were young, then that was an accurate microcosm of life not only in Cornwall, but in other rural areas. If traditional industries were dying, or under severe threat, like agriculture and fishing, other sources of income, like providing for holidaymakers, had to be portrayed. Village politics would occasionally surface; and the kind of issues which are always on the edge of every community's life - adequate sewage, and proper representation at local level.

Very few people have very much idea of what the life of the clergy is like. Yet allowing cameras to follow people like Christine Musser around for months on end showed how busy, and often difficult, life can be for a parish priest. There is a lot more to be a parish priest than simply taking services - even if each is very different from the one that follows it! There were all those life events with which people associate the clergy: baptisms, weddings, funerals. But for the first time many understood the preparation that clergy put in with couples before they are married, or the bereavement visits which follow funerals, often for many difficult weeks or months. There are the practicalities of dealing with death, undertakers, gravediggers, stonemasons. The joys of a baptism, and the unexpected bonus when adults too decide they want to be baptised.

And, of course, the priest has a home life. So the viewer would be introduced to Christine's husband, Brett; to her daughters; to all the normality of home life; to Brett's children by his earlier marriage. The very fact that the priest was herself was divorced and  in a second marriage gave what she had to say about the Church's attitude to remarriage of divorcees, an added significance. Yet none of this was planned in advance. As the filming progressed, interviews took place which had a profound effect on the watcher when the films were shown perhaps as much as nine months later.

For more go to Seaside Parish, a resounding success.

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