Jesus of Nazareth (miniseries) - Production

Production

The origin of the mini-series dates to a conversation Zeffirelli, who is Roman Catholic, had with Pope Paul VI in which the Pope asked the director to make a film about the life of Jesus. To ensure the film's accuracy, producer Lew Grade consulted experts from the Vatican, the Leo Baeck Rabbinical College of London, and the Koranic School at Meknes, Morocco.

Scriptwriter Anthony Burgess later recounted the launching of the project in an essay entitled "Telejesus (or Mediachrist)":

The notion of making a six-hour television film on the life of Jesus Christ was proposed by an enobled British Jew, with the golden blessing of an American automobile corporation. The project struck some as blasphemous, others as ecumenical. Lord Grade, who was then merely Sir Lew Grade, presided over a massive press conference in the Holy City (viz. the one that crucified St Peter upside down before making him pope) and said all that was available to be said — namely, that there would be this film, that Franco Zeffirelli would direct it, and that Anthony Burgess would write it. Fired by this announcement, the Romans laid on a great, as it were, First Supper, which the Chief Rabbi of Rome attended, as well as odd cricket-playing British ecclesiastics. Sir Lew Grade was made a Cavaliere of the Republic. The Pope was noticeably absent.

The standing sets of the film were later used by the British comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus for their religious satire The Life of Brian (1979).