A Church of England ad has been banned from cinemas. The makers of Downton Abbey didn’t want mention of religion in the series. In this week’s Irish Catholic, I write that a new secular prudery seeks to banish religion from public view, not least from our screens.

The new attitude calls to mind “the old Hays Code which set out how Hollywood movies should be made in the decades between 1930 and 1968. The code ensured that Hollywood movies would always be very coy about sex (and about swearing, drugs, ridicule of the clergy etc.) so as not to offend movie-goers, or ‘drag down’ public standards.”

“Today, we seem to have a sort of informal Hays Code in effect with regard to the depiction of religion on our screens.

Basically, it must either not be shown at all, or else it must be depicted in a very unflattering light.”