CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Would the BBC make a one-star conspiracy drama The Rapture if it was about Islam not Christianity? No need to answer that

By CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, TV CRITIC Published: 01:22, 27 July 2026 | Updated: 02:36, 27 July 2026 At the last census, almost half the adults in England and Wales said they regarded themselves as Christian. How damning it is, then, that the BBC — our state broadcaster, supposedly reflecting and representing our nation — seems to view Christianity as a bastion of anti-science nutjobs and fundamentalists. Sam Hazeldine plays a smarmy, creepy, US-style evangelist in The Rapture, who amasses followers by encouraging them to pray to a 'higher power' and 'come together in hope'. His name is Leonard Krall and we know he's a villain because he talks about 'the so-called climate crisis' and says, 'They want to keep us in a doom loop. We can't just enjoy the sunshine. Apparently, we have to fear it.' There's no greater sin in the BBC's eyes. Krall has a teenage daughter, Bethany (India Ria Amarteifio), in a psychiatric hospital after apparently murdering her mother with a screwdriver. Bethany is protesting her innocence, but not making life any easier for herself by behaving like a caricature of an obnoxious, arrogant teenager. She also has visions of the future, many of them with an emphasis on Biblical armageddon and the End of Days. One she draws repeatedly is of Christ with half his face torn away. And lo, it comes to pass, after a freak storm wrecks the 90ft statue of Jesus overlooking Lisbon, the Santuario de Cristo Rei. Would the Beeb make a similar drama about a Muslim imam, whose mentally ill daughter drew nightmarish images inspired by the Koran? Would it use CGI to imagine the destruction of an Islamic holy monument? Pictured: Iwan Rheon as Dick Carwyn and Ruth Madeley as Gabriele Fox in the BBC's The Rapture Rhetorical questions, of course. There'd be mobs on the streets. In any case, no agent would ever ask an actor to appear in such a TV show. Can you imagine the phone call? 'Darling, I think I've found a lovely role for you in this new telly thing about Islam. Umm . . . how do you feel about spending the rest of your life in hiding?' Two cheetahs braved a flooded river, in the climate change documentary Force Of Nature (ITV1), and made it across alive despite marauding crocs. Then one of them ran slap into a fatal lion ambush. Some days, things just won't go right. Fortunately for the cast of The Rapture, it isn't blasphemy to make shoddy, unconvincing conspiracy dramas, though this five-part series won't add lustre to anyone's CVs. Ruth Madeley plays Dr Gabrielle Fox, a clinical psychologist returning to work after a car crash that killed her husband and left her a paraplegic. Bethany is one of her patients, and naturally the good doctor takes it upon herself to seek out new evidence. I'm not sure why she's bothering — security at the hospital is so lax that Bethany is able to assault Gabrielle, steal a weapon and, later, escape into the grounds while the staff are distracted by their mobile phones. The continuity between shots is equally wayward. Iwan Rheon plays a drunken journalist who, in three consecutive shots, is seen clutching a glass of red, then a notebook, then a glass of white. I blame global warming.