David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St. Paul

In this first programme actor David Suchet undertakes an epic journey spanning the Mediterranean. His inspiration is a charismatic individual whose own travels through this region, two thousand years ago, changed the world forever - Paul the Apostle. In this first episode, David visits Jerusalem to discover Paul's early life as a devout Jew and his subsequent, life-changing, conversion to the new Jesus Movement. David journeys to Tarsus in modern Turkey where Paul was born, and learns he was a citizen of two worlds. He travels to Antioch in Eastern Turkey, where Paul set about his mission of converting the Gentile world to the new religion of Christianity; and to Ephesus, where Paul challenged the gods of Empire. In so doing, he was challenging the might of Rome itself.

On this journey, David seeks to uncover how an obscure Jewish sect from the edge of the Roman Empire shattered the world of the classical gods and challenged the might of Caesar, to become the dominant force in Western civilization. The catalyst for this social and religious revolution was a 5'8" powerhouse called Paul. After Jesus, Paul is the most significant figure in the history of Christianity and the Western world. He was the first international ambassador of this new faith, catapulting the radical salvation message of Jesus from Judea to the wider Mediterranean world. In this episode, David follows Paul's mission in Europe to convert the Gentile, Roman world to the new Christian faith. In Greece David visits the ancient city of Philippi, where Paul made his first convert in Europe, and then heads on to Thessalonika, Athens and Corinth.