RARELY an Easter goes by without Jesus walking the streets of towns and villages across Britain, crowned in thorns and humbled by the weight of a cross.

Salisbury and its surrounding area is no exception as Christians celebrate Easter with a Passion.

Vicars and theological students and scholars have been called into service to don sackcloth and sandals and trudge the path of Calvary close by the local church or cathedral.

The Passion Play goes back to medieval times and evolved from the same tradition as the mystery plays - religious stories from the Bible performed by artisans or guildsmen in the vernacular, rather than the Latin favoured by the church.

Plays performed on Good Friday concentrated on the final days of Christ's life, the last supper, the betrayal, the suffering and crucifixion - the Passion - and the resurrection.

The most famous modern example is the cycle of plays performed every ten years in the German village of Oberammergau but, closer to home, Salisbury's magnificent medieval cathedral has been the centrepiece for homegrown Passions on several memorable occasions in the past two decades.

In 1990, David Horlock, then artistic director of Salisbury Playhouse, proposed staging The People's Passion, with the backing of Salisbury Churches Together.

Kevin Catchpole, who had just joined the diocesan office, took up the reins of the production after David Horlock died in a car crash, on Mother's Day.

"David planned a modern production and I didn't want to alter it too much," recalls Kevin.

Roman soldiers in football strip promenaded from the Guildhall Square to the cathedral and Jesus (played by Ellis Peters) in singlet and shorts suffered in the inclement weather.

In 1991, Kevin was invited back for a repeat performance and this time he elected to use several plays taken from the mystery cycles performed at York, Chester and Coventry.

In traditional dress, on wagons pulled by great Shire horses, the production wended its way through Salisbury as disciples partook of the last supper outside Reeves the Baker and witnessed the resurrection inside the cathedral.

Dr Trevor Dennis, then vice-principal of Salisbury and Wells Theological College, played Jesus, and Canon Jeremy Davies featured in the unlikely role of Judas.

Musical contributions came from the St John Singers, soprano Diana Sharp - and the Salvation Army.

"They promised to play only three verses of the Old Rugged Cross during the crucifixion, but they played all six verses and they are very long," says Kevin.

"Jesus was perished because that's where the north wind comes round the cathedral and he wasn't wearing much."

Canon Jeremy Davies was behind the scenes on 1988, 1993, and 2000 when he organised three productions of The Way of the Cross, each more ambitious than the one before, for Churches Together.

Thousands watched as hundreds of actors wended their way through the city streets, transforming Bourne Hill gardens into the Garden of Gethsemane and creating Calvary in the Cathedral Close.

But it is not just city clerics who have been prepared to suffer in the name of Jesus - former rector of Tisbury the Rev Jonathan Meyrick was crucified more than once.

Other villages stage processions of witness on Good Friday and, in 1991, villagers in the Bourne valley started in Winterbourne Gunner and processed via Winterbourne Dauntsey to Winterbourne Earls, performing the Easter story en route.

Last word to Kevin Catchpole, whose acting ambitions reached their zenith in 1977, when he was a keen amateur actor in Chester.

"When I was a choirboy in the 1940s, there were mystery plays going on but I just thought they were thrillers," he said.

"Then, in 1977, we performed the mysteries in the grounds of Chester Cathedral for a fortnight and I played God.

"We did one show in front of Princess Margaret, so, during the blackout at the end, the angels and I nipped down from on high, so we could meet her, otherwise we would have been stranded up there and just waved.

"The headline next day said 'God comes down to meet Princess Margaret'."

Kevin claims that, since that production, the role of God has always been played by a professional actor or divided up between several actors.

"I was the last amateur old-fashioned God," he says proudly.