Warning: religious symbolism!

When Claudia Winkleman captured the Film 2010 gig on the BBC I was non too impressed and doubted she was really up to occupying a chair once graced by Barry Norman and then sullied by Jonathan Ross. Winkleman has cornered the ditzy and sometimes wry presenter market with her role on Strictly Come Dancing. To be fair she does it very well in a format that suits her gifts. Having seen her in film reviewer mode I felt that the jury was out, until last night.

Ms Winkleman and her side kick Danny Leigh were reviewing the latest offering in the Narnia series Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Everything was going fine, some interesting insights into the making of the film and the direction Michael Apted had chosen to take the series. Part way through the segment Liam Neeson, who provides the voice of Aslan, mentions C S Lewis’s conversion from atheism to Christianity and a short clip of Reepicheep, the valiant mouse, saying ‘We have nothing if not belief’ underlines the point. Back to the studio and Winkleman and Leigh make some straightforward comments about the plot and the action sequences.

Then comes this comment from Ms Winkleman:

‘We ought to warn people… there’s a lot of religious symbolism…’

I had to watch the clip back a couple of times to make sure I’d heard correctly and that Ms Winkleman wasn’t being arch and I honestly don’t think she was. (Episode 9 26mins in on iPlayer) Ironically, Ms Winkleman goes on to admit her son didn’t get the allusions.

So this is the stage we’ve now reached. A presenter feels it necessary to issue a warning to people that a children’s film might contain religious symbolism. In times gone by parents feared their children attending the cinema because of the danger they might be corrupted by the loose morals of Hollywood. Today parents have to be warned that their children might be in some way infected by Christianity.