God's own CD-Rom

He's been Moses and Michaelangelo; he's made monkeys mad. From Planet of the Apes to The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston has epitomised a certain kind of hero: a man beset by transcendental greatness; a man for whom moral ambiguity is as alien as Spock's ears.

Now Chuck's descended from the cinematic high ground into the computerised world, where Doom and destruction have until now held sway. His first CD-Rom production, Charlton Heston's Voyage Through the Bible, brings together video footage, computer modelling, music, art and the trademarked authentic Voice of God in a sanctified melange of scripture and visions of the Holy Land.

Our narrator leaps into his Jeep and scuttles from one dusty olive grove to the next. Stories from the New Testament are mixed in with 3D recreations of how it was way back when; you can hop across to hear some Mozart or browse through classic religious paintings when the Hestonian narrative gets a little too rich. It's as tasteful and WASPish as St Paul's: Hollywood does Sunday school on a silver platter.

If you want one product to persuade aunts, uncles and the vicar that computers aren't entirely godless channels of mayhem and Internet pornography, this is it. It's worth the price of admission just to hear that glorious voice at its best, intoning the timeless texts of the King James Bible with more authority than any 10 archbishops. Not to everyone's taste, but it's hard to begrudge something so artfully composed, something that shows off technology in its easily forgotten role of patient, resourceful teacher.

RUPERT GOODWINS

Available from 30 Nov, price pounds 39.95