CR spoke with BAFTA and Emmy Award winning Director Norman Stone

Norman: I suppose that there is a format already set, but they usually hire very high quality and they're great fun to do. I've had a lot of fun; I keep saying fun all the time, but there is a great deal of fun in my life. They were the absolute pearls of television. Miss Marple with Joan Hickson was a fantastic series. I was very honoured to be asked back, to be the only director to do two of them as opposed to a one off. They are some of the things I am most proud of in television.

Jonathan: The latest production you've been working on is for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and its called KJB - The Book That Changed The World. What got you drawn into doing it?

Norman: The fact that I wasn't drawn into doing it. The fact that somebody came to me, banging on about the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and how they thought I should do a film about it and I glazed over. I thought it sounded quite boring. The way it was put to me was pretty non-filmic and that annoyed me. I read a bit more and found out a bit more and discovered it was the most wonderful age. It was like the Wild West with roughs and rapiers. It was real character driven stuff. After my humiliating u-turn and saying I think there is something there, I got into it and I have to say it's great. We begin with Queen Elizabeth and Guy Fawkes at the other end. We have a good few years on our patch; a lot of action, good humour and intrigue. The story behind it is wonderfully messy and out comes this gem of a translation that's then revered and spread across the world over.

Jonathan: I'm sure you must have discovered some fascinating stories behind the emergence of the King James Bible. Is there anything particular you can share?

Norman: I just love the idea that when the translation started to get going, the bishops said, 'You know I'm sure the curates are going to start getting in some spin; they're going to sneak in their own views; let's raise the bar again'. They raised it again and again to get better and better translation, purely out of suspicion and yet that gave us such a stunning thing. If you've ever read or heard the King James Bible read out loud, it actually outshakes Shakespeare, it's a great rhythmic powerful majestic piece of work. All that purity and strength and truth of that translation came out initially because of sheer human suspicion and the dark twinkly side of life.

Jonathan: It stars John Rhys-Davies. He must add a lot of gravitas to it.

Norman: Yes and a bit more hype than I thought. I've known him from Gimli the Dwarf. He's quite big and quite tall, but he's got that Richard Burton voice and a real twinkle in his eye. Ultimately the reason I went for John, who lives in New Zealand, (we had to drag him across to do this), was because he genuinely had the hots for the subject. He loved the Elizabethan age and he particularly liked and saw the value in this book, the King James Bible. We're in danger of forgetting this Bible if we're not careful; even though it's 400 years old, its fantastic today, even more so in this modern age. John understood that and had a real light in his eye when he was talking about it. I thought, you're the one for me and indeed he was and is brilliant.

Jonathan: Who do you think this production will appeal to?

Norman: Well I've been surprised. I showed it to teenagers the other day and they sat glued for the whole of the length of the show. They were absolutely glued, which was quite pleasant really, to find that it attracted them. Certainly any mid-ranged audience will think it's fantastic. It isn't aimed just for a Christian audience. Anyone can buy it and they can put it to any use they want. The idea of it being a sectarian rather than a secular piece is not in my scope at all. I wanted it to be for everyone, especially non-Christians who may have thought, do we have one of these somewhere? Shall we blow the dust off and have a read? It's worth it. I advise you to blow the dust off and have a read.

Jonathan: What have you not yet done that you're still passionate to produce? Have you got any dreams?

Norman: At the moment I'm writing a comedy about Elvis Presley's twin brother. At the same time I want to do an amazing swashbuckling story about Columba of Iona. Jeremy Irons has just said he wants to play it, which is very nice. Those will be feature films and that's very much what I'd like to do. I don't want to blend them; I'm happy to keep them separate, one on the west coast of Scotland and one in Santa Fe New Mexico. If those two come off I'll be a very happy chap indeed.

You can buy KJB - The Book That Changed The World for £12.64 from Cross Rhythms Direct.

1A Productions is offering churches an exclusive licence agreement that allows public performances of KJB - The Book that Changed the World. For more information on this and much more visit www.kjbthefilm.com.