A Passion for Churches is a 1974 BBC television documentary written and presented by the then Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman and produced and directed by Edward Mirzoeff. Commissioned as a follow-up to the critically acclaimed 1973 documentary Metro-land, the film offers Betjeman's personal poetic record of the various rituals taking place throughout the Anglican Diocese of Norwich and its churches in the run-up to Easter Sunday using the framing device of the Holy sacraments.

Created with the approval of the Bishop of Norwich, Maurice Wood, the 49-minute film was shot on location in Norfolk and parts of Suffolk throughout the spring of 1974 on 16 mm colour film by cameraman John McGlashan. For the film, John Betjeman wrote an original poetic commentary consisting of blank verse, free verse, and prose and he appeared on-screen in several segments to describe features of ecclesiastical buildings and to reminisce about his lifelong "passion for churches".

The programme was praised by critics upon its original BBC 2 screening in December 1974 and gained high audience appreciation figures. It has since been repeated on BBC Four in 2006. It was released on a limited-edition DVD in 2007.

Following the success of the 1973 film Metro-land, which documented life in suburban London, Edward Mirzoeff was commissioned to create a new documentary with John Betjeman. Mirzoeff noticed that aside from suburban themes, the Church of England was the other major influence on Betjeman's poetry. His proposal to the poet was for a study of the Church of England to be titled Failed in Divinity, a line derived from Betjeman's poetic autobiography Summoned by Bells, in which the poet relates how he was sent down from the University of Oxford after failing a compulsory examination on divinity. In Mirzoeff's first treatment, Betjeman would have embarked on a journey around Britain studying fine cathedrals, churches and their congregations. Betjeman ruled against the title, but liked the idea, although he was keen that the film should be primarily about the Church and its people, and not himself.

Following this early proposal, Mirzoeff and Betjeman realised that a study of the whole Church would be too ambitious, and instead decided to set the film within one diocese. Betjeman initially suggested the Diocese of Southwark, owing to a friendship with the then-Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood. Mirzoeff was not keen, given that Southwark was primarily an urban diocese. A disastrous meeting with the bishop (who was "high-handed, arrogant and very, very rude") led to that idea being scrapped.

Film editor Ted Roberts suggested the Diocese of Norwich, as Norfolk is noted for the density of its medieval churches in a variety of urban, coastal and rural locations. In addition, Betjeman was close friends with Lady Wilhelmina "Billa" Harrod (to whom he had once been engaged), who resided at The Old Rectory, Holt. She was greatly involved with saving redundant churches and was personal friends with the Bishop of Norwich, Maurice Wood, and was also able to provide the crew with accommodation. Early location-scouting proved fruitful, and the production was bolstered by a meeting with Bishop Wood in March 1974, during which the bishop, after initial reluctance, gave the production his blessing. Filming began in April 1974.

"I was eight or nine years old when I used to come here to the Norfolk Broads on the River Bure, sailing and rowing with my father. And I think it was the outline of that church tower of Belaugh against the sky that gave me a passion for churches so that every church I've passed since I've wanted to stop and look in."

The documentary was shot on 16 mm colour film by cameraman John McGlashan, who had also worked on the BBC's M.R. James series of adaptations A Ghost Story for Christmas, of which the early installments were entirely filmed in Norfolk (Betjeman was a fan of Jamesian ghost stories, and often read them to the crew while travelling to locations). McGlashan was also a part-time priest for a Liberal Catholic church, and was able to bring to the production additional knowledge of the Sacraments.