The UK series
The Monastery was produced by
Tiger Aspect for the
BBC, and filmed at
Worth Abbey. It was first transmitted in May 2005.
People ; The Abbot : 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. ;The laymen :
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 doctorate 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 became a
Minor Canon at
Ripon Cathedral and is now Parish Priest of
St John The Baptist Church, Newcastle upon Tyne. 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. :
Peter Gruffydd, 69, married and a retired teacher from Bristol. The published poet wanted to re-examine the faith in which he was raised as a child, having rejected religion in his youth. :
Gary McCormick, 36, single and from
Cornwall. Originally from
Belfast, he joined the
loyalist paramilitary group, the
Ulster Defence Association (UDA) at 18 years of age. He claims to have been falsely accused of
fire bombing a shop and vandalising a Catholic home which in turn led to time in prison. Now a committed
Christian who found
God at the age 23. Struggling with alcohol and low self-esteem as a consequence of his troubled past, Gary decided to participate on the show to come to terms with issues prior to marrying his
fiancée. :
Anthoney Wright, 32, single and from
Nottingham. Working for a legal publishing company in London, he was raised by his
Baptist grandparents, he was in search of a way to deal with issues surrounding his mother and alternatives to his
hedonistic lifestyle. After the series Anthoney became a practising Buddhist and is now a published singer-songwriter; his debut album
Feet on the Ground was released in March 2009.
Reception and sequels The Monastery won the Merit Award for Religious Programming in the
Sandford St. Martin Trust Awards in 2006. The series was re-broadcast by other
television networks. The BBC commissioned a follow-up episode,
The Monastery Revisited, broadcast in June 2006; this was immediately followed by a four-episode series,
The Convent, in which four women spent 40 days in a convent of the
Poor Clares at
Arundel; and
The Retreat in 2007, in which a group of men and women lived together in a
Muslim school of prayer. ==United States==