'Bible' rates well on US TV

The Bible, the television mini-series produced by Irish actor Roma Downey and her reality television producer husband Mark Burnett, was a big ratings winner in the US last weekend as an average of almost 15 million viewers tuned in to watch the first episodes last Sunday.

Downey, who is from Derry and stars in the series as Mary, told The Irish Times that the ratings for the first of the 10-part series were “of biblical proportions”.