The Preston Passion
Report and photographs on this page by Patrick Trollope.

IT might be outside our normal area of coverage, but we know of many readers headed over to the Preston Passion, so we headed over on Good Friday (6 April 2012) to see it taking place live. After the mini heat the previous week it was quite cold, yet thousands of people came out in force in order to take part and to watch the event take place, with in an open air section of the West side of Preston Bus Station. As this event was a main focus on UK TV, marking the most important part of Christian Church's Calendar and billed as "an amazing modern day interpretation" this event had a lot to live up to! The Passion incorporated both live and recorded TV, which was sent televised live on BBC1, as part of their main Easter Programme coverage. It was also broadcast on several radio stations in Preston including BBC Radio Lancashire. This was a very well thought out idea and even though it was hard to take it all in, when on 'set', the TV audiences were delivered a highly effective piece of TV. Sadly, although the North side had a large screen some of the very effective background music and the footage was not easy to follow for the massive cast below. But most of them had other things to think about, as they got ready between 3 video clips which had innovative pre-recorded dramas on them, re-telling the Passion story via events that took place in Preston's history. The first was cast in Victorian England, as strikes took hold and threatened the cotton industry. The next was set at the Preston Railway Station during World War 1, seeing a mother finding out about the loss of her child on the battle field. The final clip was set with in modern day Preston; a view through the eyes of a child. Interestingly, when we watched the recoding later, it blended in extremely well and was very moving at times. The presenter, Fern Britton, also kept the event moving at a very reasonable pace, but she must have been worn out after the filming as she zoomed around from location to location at quite a speed between items. Underneath the big screen was The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) Chamber Choir, along with the Preston Leyland Band  who both performed amazingly well. What was even more striking was the massive amount of amateurs who preformed some complex dances, which would put quite a few military parades to shame, on the parking area of the bus station. The end section was very interesting as soul singer, Jamelia, took part after M People singer, Heather Small, had to withdraw due to illness. Jamelia performed a rousing version of Candi Staton's You Got The Love to end to an "extraordinary and moving show". It was especially good as she had just 2 days notice, after she agreed to take the starring role for the closing part of the event. Just before the event a statement from Heather's management company Bandana Management said that:- "Unfortunately Heather Small has over the past few days been suffering from an acute respiratory infection. On the advice of her doctors it is with great regret that Heather is not going to be well enough to perform at the Preston Passion on Good Friday. Heather is obviously very disappointed not to be able to fulfil her commitment to the Preston Passion and hopes to be back to full health again soon." Creative Producer of The Preston Passion, Mike Smith, added:- "We are delighted and very grateful that Jamelia has kindly agreed to join us at short notice for this key part of the event. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Heather for all the support she has given The Preston Passion over the past few months and I hope that she makes a speedy recovery." Oddly, it looked as if the section was choreographed for Jamelia, she was so good! Actually, the BBC has done this twice before; once in Liverpool and another time in Manchester, so the standard of this production in the eyes of many was always assured to be high. But to tell the truth, it is not just the skills of the production company, but also the passion and team work of all involved from crew to the hundreds of volunteers and the thousand plus people who took part. Well done to all of you. This was a good programme that showed well for the North West and especially highlighted the artistic skills that are hidden in one of England’s newest cities! These are some of the pictures we took at this event. Do you know any of the people taking part? Are you in any of the shots? We know at least 3 of you who are in them! For more information about other events taking place over Preston's Guild Year, go to:- PrestonGuild2012.com. We would like to thank both the BBC and also Preston City Council for their help in our coverage of this event.

Audio interview with Mayor will be online here very soon.  Sorry the for delay in adding it to this section.

If you want to see the effort that the team put in, take a look at this fantastic LINK.

Also take a look at these 3 other links for more information about the event and the people behind it. Preston.gov.uk  and take a look at Wikipedia - Preston Passion as well as Wikipedia Leyland Band.

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