It was one of those moments when I had to pinch myself to check I wasn't dreaming, or hadn't accidentally slipped into some bizarre parallel universe. In my left hand I was holding a plastic bottle containing dozens of live beetles; two voices were babbling an ancient language in my ear and I was lying on my back at the bottom of a shallow trench in the middle of the Moroccan desert!

"Is this really my job?!" I thought to myself.

Indeed it was my job. Many of you will know that since leaving university I have been fortunate to work for the BBC's Religion and Ethics Department in Manchester... but when I began there I could never have imagined I would end up in quite so much discomfort in the middle of North Africa wondering what was crawling up my shorts! And yet this was just another day on the film-shoot for the BBC's forthcoming drama-documentary series The Miracles of Jesus (actually transmitted in three installments on successive Sunday evenings during August 2006), and, amazingly, it was not even the most peculiar situation I found myself in! Perhaps the most surreal experience was trying to find pigs in a Muslim country and then chasing them into a lake!

The series consists of three programmes presented by Rageh Omaar, which are due to begin on BBC 1 over Easter. I was researcher on the project for the best part of 2 years (incredible I know for only 3 hours of TV!). As is now common with modern documentaries, each programme will feature drama, and it was this filming that provided the weird and wonderful experiences described above! Allow me to explain...

The scenes we were filming were the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and the exorcism of the Legion of demons. For the temptation, the director wanted the camera to keep circling the two actors - hence, me taking refuge in the trench because there was nowhere for me to stand without being in shot, and there are not many places to hide in a desert! The beetles were an idea we had for trying to make Satan look more menacing; it may sound a little strange but, when his hand emerged covered in creepy crawlies from his big black cloak, it looked quite effective!

The voices in my ear were the actors' voices coming via a radio-link to my ear-piece. One of the features of 'The Miracles of Jesus' is that wherever possible the dialogue spoken by the actors is Aramaic, the language that Jesus himself would have spoken. It is the same approach that Mel Gibson tried to take in The Passion. My job was to check that the actors' dialogue was correct according to the script I had been sent by one of the Theologians advising the programme. However, I must confess on this occasion I soon gave up, as conditions in my trench were hardly conducive to the task! I consoled myself with the thought that there are only a handful of scholars in the world who would be able to tell if we got it wrong!

As for the pigs, well there was only one place in Morocco that kept pigs but they kindly transported them to our location! For anyone worried about animal welfare at this point I am happy to say that our little insect-friends did far more harm to Satan than he did to them. The beetles were last seen making a break for freedom across the rugged terrain and Satan was left nursing a few bites! And the answer to the question in the title is an emphatic "yes!" - pigs can swim! In fact one intrepid sow swam so far out that she had to be guided back by a speed boat!

Desert trench dweller, Aramaic checker, beetle keeper, pig handler... I had no idea my job description would extend so far!

I am constantly grateful to have such an interesting and fulfilling job even though I must point out that very little of it involves mooching around Morocco, and very much of it involves sitting at a desk in Manchester! 'The Miracles of Jesus' was easily the biggest project I worked on as a researcher and I was fortunate to stay on it for as long as I did. It was a fantastic experience and one full of comical and bizarre situations as well as several professional and personal challenges.

At the very beginning of the project, the exact shape and content of the series was still undetermined and so the initial weeks involved the two producers and I trying to establish what direction to take. Previous biblical programmes had often been driven by such questions as Did these things really happen? Can we prove it? Can science offer explanation? However, with Miracles we quickly realised that we would have to re-assess this approach. Firstly 'science' quickly becomes 'science fiction' when applied to the miracles and, secondly, the old approach was not reflected in the most up-to-date scholarship. For the first time in decades, New Testament Scholars were taking the miracles seriously and they were not asking questions of if, or how, Jesus did miracles but, rather, they were looking at what they meant.

For me personally, and I hope it will be the case for the majority of the audience, this proved to be a much more fruitful approach. That is not to say, of course, that we made the series from a Christian perspective. The BBC is obviously catering for a very broad audience and that in itself was quite a challenge.

I merrily progressed with my research over the following months, building up a network of Theological advisors from Universities all over the world, until the time came to film. But, even then, the project was far from over, and it is only now that the producers are emerging from the editing suites with the finished product.

Having been so close to the project I find it very difficult to guess how the programmes will be received - but obviously I am very anxious to find out! I am particularly intrigued by what the reaction will be to the portrayal of Jesus... let's just say it is certainly some distance from the image of 'gentle Jesus meek and mild'! I hope the programmes will at least provide a talking point and an accessible opportunity for many to investigate Jesus afresh.

I look forward to hearing the audience-feedback, and I won't be offended if you have any criticisms (honest!) - but please remember the work that went in to find out if pigs can swim!

Every Blessing, David W.