Famous Fresco of Christ becomes Hairy Monkey in New Comedy Drama for Sky Arts

‘Behold the Monkey’ is a new one-off comedy drama commissioned by Sky Arts and produced by Wildcard Films in association with Palma Pictures. The short broadcast follows the real-life story of Cecilia Giminez, an elderly parishioner who took it upon herself to restore her local church’s prized Elias Garcia Martinez fresco, ‘Ecce Homo’ (Behold the Man). 

The premise of the show is that the results of her work were so disastrous that the painting and the story became headline news. But as with any tale worth telling, there was a happy ending in the media attention that drew people from around the globe to visit Cecilia´s artwork, bringing much needed prosperity to a sleepy village in the Pyrenees.

Filming in Spain, Palma Pictures provided all of the local production services for the shoot in and around some of the mountain villages of Mallorca. 

Co-Producer, Trent Walton comments: “Adam [the Director] really wanted to film in Spain, to keep the story as authentic as possible, but was unsure if he could base the schedule there. We were of course familiar with the true story and when he contacted us about the shoot, we jumped at the chance to get involved. We quickly ruled out filming in Borja, where Cecilia still lives, because it was logistically very difficult to get the whole crew and our equipment there. However we were able to recreate the quaint mountain village with a true Spanish flavour in Mallorca.  It was ideal as Mallorca is a compact yet diverse island so we could orchestrate the shoots between the mountain settings and our studios with real ease. Shooting on the island also meant that we were able to make full use of our in-house crew and equipment. It was a fantastic experience and a brilliant opportunity to bring such an intriguing story to life.” 

The comedy drama, directed by Adam Wimpenny and produced by Adam Morane-Griffiths and Joe Hill, stars Spanish actress Imma Colomer as Cecilia. Assumpta Serna, Amparo Moreno, Jacob Torres and Carles Gilabert also star in the programme.