FOLLOWING the screening last night of BBC2′s Shroud of Turin – Material Evidence, we have been contacted by Barbara Smoker, former President of the National Secular Society, who wrote:
On Easter Saturday, BBC2 showed the spectacular hour-long ‘documentary’ film of special pleading to explain away the 1988 carbon-14 dating of the Turin shroud that established it as a medieval forgery.
The rust-coloured splashes which had been identified as paint were now not only described unequivocally as blood, but the actual blood group was specified
Needless to say, it had to be the most rare of the human blood groups, which happens to be AB – and I wonder how many viewers recalled that, for the same reason, the AB group was likewise accorded to Tony Hancock in the radio and tv classic The Blood Donor!
According to BBC Two’s blurb, the documentary
Examines the mystery of shroud in a new documentary presented by Rageh Omaar. This year sees the 20th anniversary of the Carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin that deemed the most famous relic in Christendom a fake. But since then, despite many attempts, no one has been able to determine who the forger was or how the forgery might have been done.
Shroud Of Turin – Material Evidence sets out to discover exactly what it is about the image on the Shroud that has defied imitation and explores new evidence that may challenge the Carbon 14 verdict.
With unique access to the Shroud itself and those closest to it, Rageh embarks on a journey of discovery that takes him to meet Dr John Jackson, the leader of the 1978 US investigation that was given access to the cloth; to Professor Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Laboratory that did the original C14 test; to Jerusalem; and, of course, to Turin, where the production team was given permission to film the Shroud itself in High Definition for the first time.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
I agree. This was an absolutely atrocious, one-sided, historically ignorant pile of trash. I could not believe that there was no-one putting an opposing viewpoint. That the BBC were basically pumping out pro-Shroud propaganda of an almost evangelising kind, complete with a mock-up of the body “disappearing” like David Copperfield while the shroud remained. Many of the claims it made have long ago been exposed as bogus.
If the BBC had shown a similarly uncritical programme about anything to do with Islam, the Stephen Greens of this world would have been complaining like mad that “you wouldn’t do anything so respectful about Christianity”.
I think a formal complaint about this to OFCOM might be in order. This is a serious case of misleading the public.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
more from me on this:
here
March 24th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I’ve just been reading Heresiarch’s demolition job. Says it all, really.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Film the shroud in high definition? what the hell does that mean? High definition TV refers to the BROADCAST, not the film the footage is recorded on. How do they think you can buy “The Cruel Sea” in high definition, did somebody travel back in time and re-make it shot for shot using modern cameras?