The Monastery | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Directed by | Dollan Cannell |
Narrated by | Barbara Flynn |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | John Blake Charles Brand |
Producer(s) | Gabe Solomon Dollan Cannell |
Editor(s) | Martin Cooper |
Camera setup | Jim Fyans Steve Plant Gabe Solomon Dollan Cannell |
Running time | 60 min |
Production company(s) | Tiger Aspect Productions |
Distributor | Endemol UK |
Release | |
Original network | BBC Two |
Original release | 10 May 2005 |
Chronology | |
Followed by | The Monastery Revisited |
External links | |
Production website |
The Monastery is a series of reality television programs originally made in the United Kingdom in 2005. The format involves a number of individuals, who are not necessarily religious, spending a period of time in a place of religious retreat. It has since been copied for UK sequels and in the United States and Australia.
The UK series The Monastery was produced by Tiger Aspect for the BBC, and filmed at Worth Abbey. It was first transmitted in 2005-6.
The Abbot, Christopher Jamison, and the community of 22 Benedictine monks provided guidance to the laymen. Jamison became well-known through the series and went on to make further television programmes.
Tony Burke, 29, single and from London. Worked in the world of advertising and production of television trailers for sex chat lines. Of the five, it was Tony whose experience on the show was most profound. After the completion of the series, Tony continued to make frequent visits to the monastery.
Nick Buxton, 37, a PhD student who subsequently completed his doctoral in Buddhist Studies at Cambridge University and who has stayed in numerous monasteries around the world. After the series Nick trained to be an Anglican priest at St Stephen's House, Oxford University and has contributed to media with his thoughts on theology which have included a visit to the Coptic Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt. He is now a Minor Canon at Ripon Cathedral. His book on monasticism Tantalus and the Pelican, which includes considerable description and assessment of his experience at Worth Abbey and at St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster, the Carthusian monastery visited during the series, was published in January 2009.