Religious figure boarding rocket beginning to animate TV show? (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
soap opera
'tv show?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'religious figure boarding rocket beginning to animate' is the wordplay.
'religious figure' becomes 'pope'.
'boarding' is an insertion indicator.
'rocket' becomes 'soar'.
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'animate' is 'a'.
'pope' placed into 'soar' is 'soapoper'.
'soapoper'+'a'='SOAP-OPERA'
(Other definitions for soap opera that I've seen before include "that might involve The Woolpack?" , "Eg, Coronation Street" , "TV programme" , ""Coronation Street", for example" , "TV show" .)