Roman Catholic bishops buy 'sexy' BBC shows for Italian TV channel

A television channel owned by Italy's conference of bishops and endorsed by the Pope is to broadcast BBC shows for the first time - and has chosen the Pride and Prejudice adaptation featuring Colin Firth's famous wet shirt scene.

BBC Worldwide has announced its first sales to TV2000, a Roman Catholic station known as "the Italian Church's TV". A typical day's schedule includes broadcasts of Holy Mass and the Holy Rosary from Lourdes, with occasional showings of Doris Day films.

The channel had its pick of the BBC's export catalogue but passed on international favourites such as Top Gear, Doctor Who and The Great British Bake Off.

Instead they opted for nine period dramas, including the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr Darcy.

The scene in which he emerges from a lake in a dripping wet shirt has been making women weak at the knees for more than 20 years.

If the bishops thought they were avoiding racy content by choosing genteel costume dramas, perhaps they did not watch them too closely.

They signed up for the 2008 version of Sense and Sensibility which, like Pride and Prejudice, was adapted by Andrew Davies.

It was criticised by the Jane Austen Society for "sexing up the story" by opening with a scene in which John Willoughby seduces a 15-year-old girl.

Davies set out to make it "more overtly sexual" than previous adaptations.

The book hinted at "quite interesting and steamy stuff like a lot of underage sex that goes on and is just talked about.

I want to put it on the screen," he said at the time.

Austen clearly has the bishops' seal of approval, because the channel also bought a 2009 version of Emma, starring Romola Garai, and a BBC feature film, Miss Austen Regrets, which charts the author's later years.

The list of acquisitions includes adaptations of Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, and Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals.

The only show not drawn from classic literature is The Paradise, a drama set in a 19th century department store.

The announcement was made on the eve of the BBC Worldwide Showcase in Liverpool, when the broadcaster's commercial arm will display its wares to buyers from channels around the world.

While Pope Francis grants interviews to TV2000 and has held an audience with its staff, he is unlikely to see the channel's new acquisitions.

He has not watched television since 1990, when he made a promise to the Virgin Mary that he would not switch on a set again.

The only thing he misses watching is football, he said in a 2015 interview, but manages to follow the fortunes of his Argentinian team because "there is a Swiss Guard that every week tells me the results and how we are doing in the league table".