Amazing

 

I have no idea how historically accurate this might be (it sounds rather "modern"), but it´s an amazing achievement in its own right. "The Disputation" is a UK television production based on a theater play by Hyam Maccoby, first aired in 1986. And never aired since, at least according to urban legend.

The play is based on the 1263 Disputation of Barcelona between Pablo Christiani and Nachmanides, debating whether Christianity or Judaism is the true religion. Pablo Christiani (whose religious affiliation is rather obvious) is starred by Bob Peck, most known to a wider TV audience as the hardboiled big game hunter from "Jurassic Park". King James I of Aragon is starred by Christopher Lee - yes, that would be Saruman from "Lord of the Rings". 

Unsurprisingly, the Jew wins the debate against the nasty fanaticized Christian friar. The entire play strikes me as "atheist", since the arguments of both Nachmanides and the king´s mistress sound like the standard atheist-liberal ones. I know very little about Nachmanides, but judging by Wiki, he was a Kabbalist and would therefore have been regarded as a complete kook had he lived today, not as an ally of the atheists or liberal Jews!

Even so, an excellent play of a kind they don´t make today, because of course they don´t.