A long line of Mancunians from Sister Ann Lee of the Shakers to the pop star Ian Brown have believed themselves to be God's representative on Earth, but a TV drama goes one step further and will have Jesus Christ working in a video shop in Salford.
Russell T Davies, the man who caused a record number of complaints by bringing gay philanderers to prime time with Queer as Folk, is writing The Second Coming, in which the Son of God returns as a 36-year-old virgin named Steve who has never quite recovered from failing his O levels.
Steve, played by Christopher Eccleston, becomes convinced he is the Messiah after spending 40 days and nights in the wilderness of Saddleworth Moor - where the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley buried their victims. After performing a series of miracles on live TV, including turning daytime Moss Side to night, he ascends into heaven from Maine Road, the home of Manchester City football club.
In another departure from the usual script, the Church of England last night welcomed the film, saying it hoped it would start a debate on belief.
Davies, who spent his childhood avoiding Welsh chapel Sunday schools, insists that he is not trying to ridicule the religious. On the contrary, he claims that the three hour film, to be shown on ITV next autumn, is about the transgressive nature of faith in a world that has lost the will to believe.
"Religion is the softest target there is, and the last thing I want to do is a stereotypical rant against it," he said. "I have deliberately not set out to be iconoclastic. I've kept Jesus straight because I don't want to launch into an Oliver Stone type thing. I've kept my own views to myself until the end."
Davies said: "I'm trying to open up the whole nature of faith and belief to debate. We are living in a very cynical age where religion is laughed at, and yet where a lot of us have our own hotchpotch of weird beliefs and DIY creeds."
No matter how we try to deny it, Christian icons and beliefs are burned into our culture, Davies claims.
Manchester, a city throbbing with football messiahs from Cantona to Beckham and messianic pop idols such as Morrisey, Mark E Smith and Oasis, was the obvious place to set it. Although Davies said the backdrop for the ascension had not been decided, it begged to be shot at Maine Road because "Manchester City is the club most in need of miracles".
The Church of England has given the project its cautious imprimatur. Its spokesman on broadcasting, Arun Kataria, said that although Davies was "tapping into a very rich and rarely tapped vein _ The rational culture we are in does not like to debate or face up to the mysteries and difficulties that faith does. Cold, hard rationalism failed on September 11 and people turned to religion for help. The churches were full in the days after it. People took their unanswerable questions and inexpressible emotions to church for that reason. If the film scratches that surface then it will be of some value."