Yet despite the adulation she had earned-and with the might of the Vatican behind her when she was still living-Mother Teresa of Calcutta prevented a gushing,sentimentalized portrayal of her remakable life which friends say was an attack on her dignity.

A Disney-style mini-series glamorizing the story of the 87-years-old nun is due to be screened on American TV later this year in Britain next year.

The man behind the 10 million four-parter is America Kevin Connor,who has spent 20 years making unauthorized documentary-dramas,including the controversial Diana:Her True Story and Liz:The Elizabeth Taylor Story.

Certainly,the sentimental format of the series,Mother Teresa:In the name of God's Poor,starring Geraldine Chaplin,is straight out of the Hollywood slush machine.

When novelist Doninique Lapiere sent his script to Calcutta four years ago to try to win her approval,Mother Teresa and other members of the Missionaries of Charity were said to have been horrified.

"Mother thoroughly disapproved of it",says her spokesman Sister Pricilla at the Missionaries of Charity's New York headquarters.

But despite the protests,filming went ahead shruoded in secrecy last january-only four months after Mother Teresa had an operation for heart failure.

A filmmakers Hallmark Entertainment-in association with Disney-have shown scant regard for accuracy by making a bizarre addition to her 'life story'.. a stapping young reporter called Harry Harper,played by actor William Kitt,whose bestknown previous role was as a spoof TV superman.

Industrialist's wife Sunita Kumar,who is close to Mother Teresa,says,"The script about Teresa jazzed up her life so the film would be a box-office draw,rather like Lapierre did with City of Joy",she says."She had nothing to do with it.The nuns wanted him to make some changes but he refused".

Teresa is teaching at the Loreto Convent but is inspired by the plight of a beggar,so she leaves to work among the city's poor-against her archbishop's wishes.Mistrusted by the poor,she finds the going tough but eventually wins round the city's gangs,says the Disneyfield version.

Realizing she will get more done if she is autonomous, Teresa upsets her archbishop by pletitioning Rome to begin a new order. To everyone's surprise,her wish is granted-and the Missionaties of Charity are set up.

Soon the police chief is unhappy,though-and local youths fear she is making a 'Christ factory'.However,divine intervention comes in the unlikely shape of American newsman Harry Harper who is reporting on an Indian-Pakistan war.He hears about the young nun's humane and courages work and writes a series of moving reorts about her.In 1979,she is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The bare bones of this story are,indeed,true...butoverall the script is said to embellish reality.Geraldine Chaplin,53,who has atarred in more than20 movies,including Dr.Zhivago and more recently The Mirror Crack'd,is said to be happy her involvement in the film,which comes three years after a Channel 4 documentary accused Mother Teresa of being an attention-seeking egotist.

Recently Chaplin's agent said she had no comment to make on the controversy the film is bound to stir up.And despite repeated calls,no one was available to comment at Hallmark Entertainment or Disney. In stark contrast,Mother Teresa's charitable works around the world existecd on donations scraped together from well-wishers.

So, in view of the bad feeling,have the backers offered the charity any money?

Absolutely not",Sys Sister Priscilla.And after the way Moter Teresa's life had been trivialized,would they expect the members of the Missionaries of Charity to take it anyway?