Catholics vent fury over BBC's pogoing Pope

More than 6,000 Roman Catholics have signed a petition condemning a new BBC cartoon, Popetown, in which Ruby Wax provides the voice of a wide-eyed pontiff who bounces around the Vatican on a pogo stick.

The 10-part animation will "co-star" Jerry Hall as a fame-obsessed nun and Kevin Eldon, a veteran of irreverent comedies such as Brass Eye and I'm Alan Partridge, as the central character, Father Nicholas.

The cast also includes comedian Morwenna Banks, who plays Father Nicholas's doting assistant, Sister Marie, and Mackenzie Crook, the self-important Gareth in the sitcom The Office, who will also script the programme.

The BBC would say only that the cartoon, which is not due to be shown until the autumn on BBC3, is "an office comedy that happens to be set in the Vatican".

Ruby Wax is embracing her role with typical relish. In publicity for the series, she proclaims: "At last I am the Pope, which is only right and good."

But news of the programme has angered some Catholics, whose petition urges the BBC to think again.

Kathleen Goble, who is co-ordinating the protest on behalf of the Centre for Peace at Ilford, Essex, said: "I send out a 'message' newsletter around the country every month, and as soon as I heard the BBC was planning this I mentioned it in one of the messages.

"Before I knew it, I had hundreds of letters from all over the country, and we now have 6,000-plus signatures.

"Whatever the BBC tries to say about this just being a straightforward office comedy or whatever, that's just rubbish. It's clearly a cynical, satire-type thing, and an insult.

"The Pope is old and frail, and he is one of the only leaders in the world who has the courage at a time like this to stand up, tell the truth and talk about peace."

Mrs Goble said she was considering consulting lawyers about the possibility of prosecuting the BBC and/or the programme's producers, the independent company CHX Productions, under the law governing blasphemy.

She added that the cartoon looked to be little more than a cheap attempt to capitalise on the current difficulties of the Catholic Church, after months of revelations about child sex abuse by priests.

She asked: "Would the BBC do this with Islam? Would they do it against Judaism? It's just a case of kicking a dog when it's down."