What's it all about, Alpha?

THE Lord is up to his old tricks and has recommenced working in mysterious ways. Sir D avid Frost is in on the secret, as are Sir Cliff Richard and the Archbishop of Canterbury. By the good graces of Alpha - Will it Change Their Lives? (ITV), I was brought out of the outer darkness and illumination flickered over me. Alpha is a form of revolutionary Christianity venturing forth from its spiritual home of Holy Trinity in the Brompton Road and spreading its warm glow through the churches, universities and prisons of this fair land. Alpha, in fact, is so cosy that if I had been told it had been invented in the soft-furnishings department of Harrods just down the road, then I would have swallowed that whole.

Alpha's main man, the wizard w ho let the genie out of the bottle 20 years ago, is the Reverend Nicky Gumbel. It was here thatI encountered the first of many obstacles on the path to true faith.

The words "Reverend" and "Nicky" do not belong together.

The former is a serious word w hile the latter suggests something more frivolous, such as a hairdresser, or a Formula One motor-racing driver.

Without particularly resembling him physically, Gumbel reminded me irresistibly of Tony Blair. There was the otherworldly light dancing in the eyes, a mouth that was permanently on the verge of a reassuring smile, and a voice that quietly pleaded with you to believe it. If the camera had deviated a little from its strict head- and-shoulders policy on Nicky,I am sure this would have revealed that he was doing Blair-type things with his hands.

The Blair connection goes further. As further details were carefully leaked, I realised that Alpha was nothing less than New Religion. With a smooth command of image and a radiant set of inner convictions, it had seized the middle ground of religious practice, at least as it concerns the Church of England, squeezing all else to the margins. The inside of Holy Trinity had been converted to a giant dining room with long refectory tables groaning under the w eight of an impressive quantity of loaves, fishes and other food -stuffs. Throughout the programme, food featured prominently. It used to be said that the High Church represented the Tory party at prayer. It can now be said that Alpha is New Labour at supper.

Sir David Frost appeared to have no doubts about the Alpha experience, expressing his earnest desire that we viewers at home might sample the Alpha, albeit vicariously. Upbeat music punctuated scenes of eager discourse, while every now and then, the camera would trot outdoors and linger lovingly on a leafy vista or a house of golden Cotsw old stone.

When the camera is seen to be in cahoots with Alpha, creating the impression that all is well with the world, then questions urgently need to be asked.

Unfortunately, inquisition of any description was off the menu.

The programme could not be described as investigative - it could hardly be called a documentary. With its slick intercutting and rose- tinted lens work, this felt like nothing so much as a promotional video. Alpha was presented as a course on God, such as one might take a course in woodwork or a foreign language. Furthermore, this God was at the helm of a form of Christianity from which all the tricky and difficult bits had been carefully trimmed away.

IN order to make Alpha an entertaining ride, the makers of the series have hit upon an ingenious form at.

Over the next few weeks, we will follow 10 people who have signed up for an Alpha course for the first time. Each of the 10 was introduced by means of a mini-biography. They were seen at work and at play, in the pub and the discotheque. The message was clear: these are normal people, OK? They are not freaks in any way, do you understand that? The thrill comes in seeing how they cope with the course, in finding out whether they reach some form of enlightenment, or whether they flunk out in disillusionment. This is a form of light entertainment I have seen before. Perhaps they could have called it Oh Big Brother.

If I have given the impression that this was a wholly uncritical piece of television, then I was gravely in error. A critic was produced to state the case against Alpha, tucked aw ay in a gloomy vestry far aw ay from the bright lights and lavish catering of the Brompton Road. In reasonable tones, the Reverend Shakespeare explained that Alpha seemingly presenting itself as the only answ er was not entirely satisfactory. His voice was accompanied by gloomy organ music. He was a lone prophet in the wilderness.It is quite possible that my scepti -cism will prove to be ungrounded.

All 10 novices may well walk aw ay from Alpha, and the whole organisation may be revealed as a hollow shell. But somehow , I don't think so.

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