The BBC’s Inside the Vatican relies, we are told in its somewhat breathless publicity, on unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Vatican City State. But viewers hoping for a fly-on-the-wall documentary that would tell them something they did not already know, or which could not be gleaned from other readily available sources, would have been disappointed.
There were scenes showing what happens after St Peter’s Basilica closes at night, and anyone interested in cleaning would be fascinated by the sight of men in white protective clothing scaling the baldacchino over the high altar and attacking it with what looked like giant cans of Pledge; but as for the rest of the people who work in the Vatican, most of these were giving little away.
