Sacred Wonders, BBC1

On one level, making a series about the world’s most spectacular sacred places sounded relatively straight forward, but making it a landmark series for BBC1 proved to be something of a challenge.

We obviously needed to cover a range of faiths but what quickly became apparent was that one person’s sacred place is another’s Instagram backdrop for their holiday snaps.

Some of the world’s most famous landmarks have been inspired by faith, so while they are places of deep spiritual worship, they are also visited by thousands of tourists every year.

On the plus side, that meant they would be recognised by much of the audience, regardless of their own faith. Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem all fitted the bill.

However, we also needed fantastic stories of what people did for their faith in these places. Everyone I mentioned the series to came up with a list of the places we should “obviously” include – but few of those offered the variety of stories that we would need for a three-part series.

To make sure that the programmes weren’t all gothic columns, elaborate carvings and ancient mosaics, we also wanted to cover natural sacred places. The Nachi Falls in Japan was ideal.

Here, Shinto devotees purify the path from the nearby shrines to the sacred waterfall with giant burning torches, to allow the spirits to pass.

Another natural location was the sacred tepees of the Mescalero Apaches in New Mexico, which are built for girls’ coming-of-age ceremonies. While most sacred places are constructed over decades and last hundreds of years, for the Mescalero, a holy lodge is built in a matter of hours and lasts just days.

There were all the usual hassles. Negotiations at every site went on for months, and once we had access, it was always a race to the wire as to whether we would get government permissions and visas in time for the once-a-year events we wanted to film.

An added complication was whether the people in charge of these sites would let us film, as many of the events were at key moments in that faith’s calendar. They were, of course, also of deep spiritual significance to the people taking part.

It was something we were all conscious of and the crews were very respectful about what they could and couldn’t do, where they could and couldn’t go, and sometimes what they could and couldn’t wear. In one place no shoes were allowed, and filming for days on end, in bare feet, in the heat and in large crowds was far from easy.

Inevitably, some of the most interesting stories were the hardest to get. The complete replastering of the largest mud building in the world, Djenne’s Great Mosque in Mali, was a particular challenge. Jihadis were operating in the area outside the town and there was a risk of kidnap.

With support and advice on the risks, we picked a crew experienced in shooting in difficult places. We were told we would have a maximum of four days in the town but that we may need to leave after two. As it turned out, the crew got three days to film, before they had to leave. They got home safely and captured a beautiful story rarely seen these days.

Personal stories

Across the series, we filmed some extraordinary stories at stunning locations, but for me the most heart-breaking and moving story was in Lalish in Iraq.

For people of the Yazidi faith, it is the most sacred place on earth and it has taken on a new meaning since the Islamic State invaded their homeland in 2015. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls had been captured and traded as sex slaves.

We followed a 21-year-old Yazidi woman returning to Lalish from Germany, where she fled after her ordeal. She had been captured when she was just 17 and was frequently sexually assaulted and beaten during her 11 months in captivity, before escaping.

Her journey back to Iraq to be blessed in the Lalish’s sacred springs and the enormous comfort it gave her is both heart-wrenching and inspiring to watch.