Jerry Springer opera faces court action

LONDON, April 1 (UPI) -- The Christian Institute is seeking judicial review of "Jerry Springer: The Opera," which only recently was cleared of charges of irreverence.

A BBC spokesman said there would be no comment on the Christian Institute's action because "this is a legal matter and is so far the only legal action ongoing, and because it is ongoing we can't comment further."

BBC received 55,000 complaints before and 8,000 after its January broadcast of the award-winning West End theater satire based on Springer's TV show. The complaints were turned over to the BBC's Governors Program Complaints Committee charged with deciding whether broadcast material meets BBC editorial standards and decency codes.

The committee voted 4-1 to reject the objections, while taking note of "the offense to religious beliefs caused to sizeable numbers of people."

"The broadcast was justified because the outstanding artistic significance of the program outweighed the offense that it caused to some viewers" by featuring Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and God as Springer's guests on his confessional program, the BBC said.