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Westminster Abbey has shut its doors to the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, saying that the book is "theologically unsound".
Some scenes in the latter part of the book are set in the abbey in London, and the film's producers had been hoping that they would be allowed to film there, as they have been allowed to do in Lincoln Cathedral in eastern England.

But their hopes were dashed by a statement from the abbey: "Although a real page turner, The Da Vinci code is theologically unsound and we cannot commend or endorse the contentious and wayward religious and historic suggestions made in the book - nor its views of Christianity and the New Testament. It would therefore be inappropriate to film scenes from the book here."

The novel postulates that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children by her, but Christians are taught that Christ never married and was childless when he was crucified.

Dan Brown's bestseller, which has sold 2.4m copies in paperback in the last 12 months in the UK alone, has already been condemned by the Vatican and Anglican church leaders for distorting the Christian message. The film adaptation will star Tom Hanks as the Harvard symbologist and conspiracy unraveller, professor Robert Langdon.