Holy Flying Circus

The TV play Holy Flying Circus asked whether a film like Life of Brian could or would be made today- in this age of edgy religious minorities. Seeing how the play was considerably more offensive than the film dared to be (a farting Jesus for starters) the answer is clearly "No"; not because the churches would take it down, but because guying Christianity has become old hat and even a teeny bit boring. 

Brian belongs to an age of religious transition. It depends upon a mass audience knowing the Bible- but not taking it too seriously. It could only have been made when it was. Twenty years earlier the church would have been too powerful, twenty years later too weak.