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Jesus of Nazareth is a 1977 Anglo-Italian television miniseries dramatizing the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus based on the accounts in the four New Testament Gospels. The six-hour-plus long miniseries was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and Lew Grade through his ITC Entertainment company. Zeffirelli co-wrote the screenplay with Anthony Burgess and Suso Cecchi d'Amico. It was filmed entirely on location in Tunisia and Morocco. The origin of the film was in a conversation Zeffirelli had with Pope Paul VI some time earlier in which the pope asked the director to make a film about the life of Jesus. [1] Jesus of Nazareth premiered March 27, 1977 on British television on the ITV network courtesy of ITC's parent company, Associated Television; it made its American premiere on April 3, 1977. The miniseries is broadcast every Easter and Christmas on the History Channel. For its fifth airing on American television at Easter 1987, TV Guide called Jesus of Nazareth "the best miniseries of all time" and "unparalleled television".