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Jekyll (TV serial)
Encyclopedia
Jekyll is a British
television drama serial produced by Hartswood Films
and Stagescreen Productions for BBC One
. The series also received funding from BBC America
. Steven Moffat
wrote all six episodes, with Douglas Mackinnon
and Matt Lipsey
each directing three episodes.
The series is described by its creators as a sequel to the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, rather than an adaptation of it, and the Robert Louis Stevenson
tale is used within the series as a back story. It stars James Nesbitt
as Tom Jackman, a modern-day descendant of Dr. Jekyll, who has recently begun transforming into a version of Mr. Hyde (also played by Nesbitt). Jackman is aided by psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer, played by Michelle Ryan
. Gina Bellman
also appears as Claire, Tom's wife.
Filming took place at various locations around southern England in late 2006. The series was first transmitted on BBC One in June and July 2007, receiving mainly positive reviews.
Reimer observes that Jackman's alter ego exhibits rage, heightened senses, greatly superior strength and speed, and a more playful and flirtatious manner. She assures this persona she will keep his secrets just as she keeps Jackman's, but asks for guarantees he will not harm her. After being informed of the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde takes the titular alter ego's name for his own and the two agree to respect the other's autonomy.
Jackman transforms after visiting his family, from whom he has kept his Hyde persona a secret. To Jackman's family he becomes 'Uncle Billy', Jackman's long-lost cousin. This begins the escalation of conflict between Jackman and Hyde, with both leaving notes for the other before transforming.
Miranda Callendar, a detective employed by Claire, learns about Hyde and informs Jackman that Jekyll and Hyde was not fiction, but a fictionalized version of actual events. There was a Doctor Jekyll who lived in Edinburgh. When he is shown a picture of Jekyll, Jackman realizes he looks exactly like him. He assumes he is a descendant of Jekyll's, but Callendar informs him Jekyll died without children.
Jackman's friend Peter Syme (who is his boss at the biotech firm of Klein and Utterson) and an American named Benjamin are revealed to belong to a group which has been tracking Jackman/Hyde. He meets a woman who claims to be his mother and who has been working with Reimer, but learns no more from her before she leaves. Jackman heads to Syme's house to learn the truth. Syme attempts to drug him, informing him that Benjamin and other personnel from Klein and Utterson are on their way. Feeling Hyde taking over, Jackman locks himself and Syme in the house's basement, not realizing Claire has been in the house and is also hiding in the basement. After toying with Syme and Claire, Hyde is confronted by the men from Klein and Utterson. Hyde is captured, but first kills Benjamin. Claire argues they need to find a cure for him. Syme informs her they have a cure and Claire watches, bound and gagged, as her husband is locked in a metal coffin.
Reimer and Callendar confront Syme, claiming they know the truth about Jackman. Callendar says Klein and Utterson have access to cloning technology and that Jackman is Jekyll's clone. Syme denies this and orders them taken away. He reveals to Claire the "cure" her husband is undergoing will purge Jackman's persona, not Hyde. Klein and Utterson want to examine Hyde in order to synthesize the potion that turned the original Jekyll into Hyde. When the box is opened, Hyde is dominant. In a flashback triggered by genetic memory, Hyde sees a meeting between Jekyll and Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson reveals that he knows, "there is no potion." Jekyll lied to trap anyone who might try to create another Hyde. Jackman also learns there was a maid in Jekyll's household whom he was in love with and looks like Claire. It was the love for this woman that released Hyde. Hyde manifests, exhibiting greater superhuman abilities (including a limited ability to control electricity) and cuts his way through the Klein and Utterson personnel.
Enraged by further attempts to harm their family, Jackman and Hyde escape from Klein and Utterson. But Mrs Utterson takes Claire and her sons prisoner, trapping the boys in boxes similar to that which had been used on Jackman. Managing to make her way into the lowest level of Klein Utterson Claire encounters Jackman's mother. She explains to Claire that while although Jekyll had no descendants, Hyde did. She also explains that Klein Utterson did attempt to clone Jekyll but never managed to do it successfully. They did, however, manage to clone that which served as the catalyst to release Hyde. Claire is a clone of Alice, Jekyll's maid. Eventually, Hyde appears and in a confrontation with Mrs Utterson he sacrifices himself to save Jackman's family.
Six months later Jackman, apparently free of Hyde, has tracked down his mother. Confronting her he asks about his origins, asserting that he couldn't possibly be descended from Jekyll. She tells him that she is not the descendant of Jekyll, but rather a descendant of Edward Hyde. The final shot of the series is of Jackman's mother transforming into her own Hyde persona, that of Mrs. Utterson.
and joined with Hartswood Films when Elaine Cameron was scouting for ideas for a supernatural thriller. Cameron then approached Steven Moffat for a script, and a six-part series was commissioned by the BBC's Jane Tranter
and John Yorke in November 2005.
BBC America signed on to provide co-production funding in March 2006. The producers regularly met with Moffat for brainstorming sessions. Cameron's assistant took notes from these conversations, after which they would look over the notes and start the process again. The producers invited Moffat to "write anything", with the intention of cutting the material back later. However, they were reluctant to cut material once they saw it on the page. The first episode starts with Jackman already knowing about his alter ego. Because the plot of Jekyll begins after the story has developed for the characters, Nesbitt says that the show feels like it is a second series.
Moffat explicitly describes the series as a sequel, rather than an adaptation, stating the Jekyll of the original story really existed, and Jackman is his "modern-day descendant dealing with the same problems". As Jekyll and Hyde is such a well known phrase, Moffat labored over what to call the series, eventually deciding upon Jekyll because that word "carries the name Hyde". The final episode replaces the title "Jekyll" with "Hyde". Producer Elaine Cameron says the one word title gives the series a "very modern feel". Moffat initially named the character Jekyll rather than Jackman, but found it cumbersome to constantly explain that the book had not been written in this alternate universe. Instead he chose a version where the book exists, but changed the name to Jackman. Otherwise, Cameron felt, the character would appear stupid by not realising what was happening when turning into Hyde.
The scene between Tom and Katherine was expanded slightly in the sixth episode to keep their relationship active to facilitate a second series. However, no further episodes were commissioned. In an August 2007 interview, Moffat told Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
that he had a sequel written for the miniseries "should the BBC be interested".
Following Jekyll, Moffat became a co-writer on another TV series with a single, historical but fictional, name, Sherlock. This work brought the "consulting detective" into the 21st century.
James Nesbitt and his agent attended a meeting with Jane Tranter in late 2005 regarding the 2006 series of Murphy's Law
. At the conclusion of the meeting, she offered him a script for Jekyll, suggesting that he might like the role. Nesbitt took the script role as a way of putting a distance between his previous work. The casting of Nesbitt as Tom Jackman and Hyde was publicised on 12 December 2005, but filming was not scheduled to begin until September 2006, increasing Nesbitt's anticipation to play the roles. Writer Steven Moffat said that the dual-role required a very skilled actor, and a well-known actor was necessary because it was such an expensive show to produce. The production team decided Nesbitt's two characters would be mainly differentiated over a change in performance rather than by extensive make-up because they wanted Hyde to be able to walk around in public without attracting attention.
Michelle Ryan, known for her long-running role as Zoe Slater
in the soap opera EastEnders
, was revealed by tabloid newspaper The Sun
to have been cast as "Jekyll's sultry assistant" (Katherine Reimer) in August 2006. Ryan believed herself to be too young for the part, though that aspect had already been written into the character. To prepare, she consulted the Royal College of Psychiatry. Denis Lawson
was cast as Peter Syme. The actor consulted his post-graduate son for information on Syme's job. Ryan dyed her hair red for the role to help differentiate her from Tom Jackman's wife.
Gina Bellman was cast as Claire Jackman. However, writer Moffat initially doubted her suitability for the role because he associated Bellman too much with Jane Christie, the character she had played in his sitcom Coupling
. Moffat did not imagine the character to be as "beautiful" as Bellman, but her audition was so good that he had to revise his vision of the character. Bellman originally auditioned for the role of Katherine, but the producers wanted someone younger to play that role. However, Bellman said that she talked herself out of the role by arguing that there should be an age gap between Katherine and Claire to avoid Katherine becoming a threat to the wife. Bellman approached her role as if Claire had become caught up in Tom's mid-life crisis
, an angle that impressed the producers.
Meera Syal
was attracted to her role because Miranda was not a clichéd private detective and she thought the humour was "fresh". During the second filming block, Mark Gatiss
briefly joined the cast, playing the small but important role of Robert Louis Stevenson in flashback scenes in episode five.
Other roles included Paterson Joseph
as Benjamin Maddox, and Linda Marlowe as Ms Utterson.
Filming began in September 2006 with the zoo sequence from the second episode, in which Benjamin's team have set Tom up to force out Hyde by placing his son, Eddie, in the lion's den. Writing the sequence at a late stage in the production, Moffat wanted to compare Hyde's natural instinct to kill to that of a lion. This was shot on location at Heythrop Zoo, a private zoo in Chipping Norton run by Jim Clubb, whose firm Amazing Animals specialises in training animals for cinema and television. The Norman Foster-designed building in Chertsey, Surrey, which then housed the European Headquarters of video game designer and publisher Electronic Arts
, was used as The Klein & Utterson Institute. A large country estate near Henley-on-Thames
and in Bognor Regis
was used for some of the scenes whilst on the run and in flashbacks. A disused Boys' school in Gloucestershire
, and the Hammer House
in Wardour Street
, Soho
were used in episode six. Filming concluded on 20 December 2006.
The schedule was tight for a complex production. The production team had twelve days to shoot each episode, which director Douglas Mackinnon says was the biggest challenge of the project. The required amount of material was shot for most of the episodes. However, an extra twenty minutes of material was filmed for episode six. Director Matt Lipsey recalls that the team struggled to cut the extra material whilst maintaining the integrity of the episode. Lipsey credits Moffat for not "being precious" over his material during the editing process, and points out that his willingness to cut superfluous material means that he is taken seriously when he argues for something to be retained.
The music was composed by Debbie Wiseman
. The orchestra featured approximately 18 pieces. Some cues featured the vocals of Hayley Westenra
to foreshadow the importance of a female voice.
benefit concert was broadcast during its timeslot on 7 July. The series began airing on BBC America from 4 August, as part of a "Supernatural Saturday" programming strand. In Australia
, Jekyll began broadcasting on ABC1
, Sundays at 8.30 p.m. from 2 March 2008 with a double episode back-to-back each week. In Canada
, Jekyll began broadcasting on Showcase, beginning at the end of August 2007 and on BBC Canada
, Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. from 26 March 2008. Also in Hong Kong
, Wednesday at 11:55 p.m. from 11 February 2009 on TVB Pearl
. In the Netherlands
, Jekyll was broadcast in the summer of 2009 on Sci-Fi Channel
.
Certain edits were made to the United Kingdom broadcasts in order to remove language unsuitable for Saturday night BBC One audiences. For example, a line spoken by Hyde in episode one was changed from "Who the fuck is Mr Hyde?" to "Who the hell is Mr Hyde?"
James Jackson of The Times
rated the first episode four out of five stars, calling Nesbitt's performance as Hyde "as entertainingly OTT as a dozen Doctor Who
villains, with a palpable sense of menace to boot". The conspiracy plot is praised as a storyline that distinguishes this series from other adaptations. The Daily Telegraph
s Stephen Pile criticised the script for "veering between Hammer horror and larky humour" and for being "cheesy". He also criticised Hyde's gravity-defying hijinks and mistook Michelle Ryan for a model. In the same newspaper, James Walton called the first episode a combination of "a good yarn with several nicely thoughtful touches". David Cornelius of DVDTalk was full of compliments for the series, summing up its review with the statement "six episodes, 300 minutes, not a single one of them wasted. 'Jekyll' is this year's finest television event".
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation
, commenting on the series being part of their 2008 line-up, said "This classic horror tale has been given a modern make-over that will leave you on the edge of your seat and begging for more. James Nesbitt is outstanding as the new Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Nesbitt was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his roles. Paterson Joseph received a mention in the nominations for the 2008 Screen Nation
awards.
rated all episodes as a 15 certificate on 11 June 2007. Jekyll: Season One was released for region 2 on 30 July 2007 by Contender Home Entertainment. It includes uncut episodes, including restoration of some swearing cut from the BBC broadcasts. As DVD Verdict says about this uncut version, "the language is saucier, the violence a bit more bloody, and the sex more primal." The disc contains audio commentaries on two episodes: producer Elaine Cameron, writer Steven Moffat and first-block director Douglas Mackinnon commentate on episode one, while executive producer Beryl Vertue
, second-block director Matt Lipsey and actress Gina Bellman comment upon the sixth episode. The set also contains two documentaries: "Anatomy of a Scene" focuses upon the production of the zoo sequence in episode two, while "The Tale Retold" covers the evolution of the series. The first Region 1 release occurred in the United States on September 18, 2007, although the Region 1 Canadian release was delayed until October 9, following the Canadian broadcast of the series on Showcase, which commenced at the end of August 2007.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama serial produced by Hartswood Films
Hartswood Films
Hartswood Films is a British television production company, founded and run by producer Beryl Vertue. The company is noted for its sitcom output, which includes Men Behaving Badly, Is It Legal? and Coupling...
and Stagescreen Productions for BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. The series also received funding from BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
. Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
wrote all six episodes, with Douglas Mackinnon
Douglas Mackinnon
Douglas Mackinnon is a British film and television director. He made his feature film directorial debut with The Flying Scotsman , which was the gala premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006 and was consequently picked up for worldwide distribution by MGM.He directed the first three episodes of...
and Matt Lipsey
Matt Lipsey
Matt Lipsey is a British television and film director. His work includes Baby Cow Productions sitcoms Human Remains and Saxondale, and Hartswood Films series Supernova, The Cup and Jekyll. His first film, Caught in the Act, was released in 2008...
each directing three episodes.
The series is described by its creators as a sequel to the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, rather than an adaptation of it, and the Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
tale is used within the series as a back story. It stars James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...
as Tom Jackman, a modern-day descendant of Dr. Jekyll, who has recently begun transforming into a version of Mr. Hyde (also played by Nesbitt). Jackman is aided by psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer, played by Michelle Ryan
Michelle Ryan
Michelle Claire Ryan is an English actress.She is best known for portraying the role of Zoe Slater on BBC soap opera EastEnders. In 2007, she starred in the short lived American television series Bionic Woman...
. Gina Bellman
Gina Bellman
Gina Bellman is a New Zealand-born British actress currently starring in the series Leverage as Sophie Devereaux for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Television.-Personal life:...
also appears as Claire, Tom's wife.
Filming took place at various locations around southern England in late 2006. The series was first transmitted on BBC One in June and July 2007, receiving mainly positive reviews.
Plot
Doctor Tom Jackman is a married father of two. A psychiatric nurse named Katherine Reimer takes a job caring for him. Abandoned by his mother as a child, Jackman has split from his wife, Claire. In the first episode, Jackman straps himself into a chair and Reimer watches as he undergoes a subtle physical transformation. While Hyde and Jackman are physically nearly identical, a running element of the series is the way in which others perceive them as distinct to the point of asking one where the other has gone.Reimer observes that Jackman's alter ego exhibits rage, heightened senses, greatly superior strength and speed, and a more playful and flirtatious manner. She assures this persona she will keep his secrets just as she keeps Jackman's, but asks for guarantees he will not harm her. After being informed of the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde takes the titular alter ego's name for his own and the two agree to respect the other's autonomy.
Jackman transforms after visiting his family, from whom he has kept his Hyde persona a secret. To Jackman's family he becomes 'Uncle Billy', Jackman's long-lost cousin. This begins the escalation of conflict between Jackman and Hyde, with both leaving notes for the other before transforming.
Miranda Callendar, a detective employed by Claire, learns about Hyde and informs Jackman that Jekyll and Hyde was not fiction, but a fictionalized version of actual events. There was a Doctor Jekyll who lived in Edinburgh. When he is shown a picture of Jekyll, Jackman realizes he looks exactly like him. He assumes he is a descendant of Jekyll's, but Callendar informs him Jekyll died without children.
Jackman's friend Peter Syme (who is his boss at the biotech firm of Klein and Utterson) and an American named Benjamin are revealed to belong to a group which has been tracking Jackman/Hyde. He meets a woman who claims to be his mother and who has been working with Reimer, but learns no more from her before she leaves. Jackman heads to Syme's house to learn the truth. Syme attempts to drug him, informing him that Benjamin and other personnel from Klein and Utterson are on their way. Feeling Hyde taking over, Jackman locks himself and Syme in the house's basement, not realizing Claire has been in the house and is also hiding in the basement. After toying with Syme and Claire, Hyde is confronted by the men from Klein and Utterson. Hyde is captured, but first kills Benjamin. Claire argues they need to find a cure for him. Syme informs her they have a cure and Claire watches, bound and gagged, as her husband is locked in a metal coffin.
Reimer and Callendar confront Syme, claiming they know the truth about Jackman. Callendar says Klein and Utterson have access to cloning technology and that Jackman is Jekyll's clone. Syme denies this and orders them taken away. He reveals to Claire the "cure" her husband is undergoing will purge Jackman's persona, not Hyde. Klein and Utterson want to examine Hyde in order to synthesize the potion that turned the original Jekyll into Hyde. When the box is opened, Hyde is dominant. In a flashback triggered by genetic memory, Hyde sees a meeting between Jekyll and Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson reveals that he knows, "there is no potion." Jekyll lied to trap anyone who might try to create another Hyde. Jackman also learns there was a maid in Jekyll's household whom he was in love with and looks like Claire. It was the love for this woman that released Hyde. Hyde manifests, exhibiting greater superhuman abilities (including a limited ability to control electricity) and cuts his way through the Klein and Utterson personnel.
Enraged by further attempts to harm their family, Jackman and Hyde escape from Klein and Utterson. But Mrs Utterson takes Claire and her sons prisoner, trapping the boys in boxes similar to that which had been used on Jackman. Managing to make her way into the lowest level of Klein Utterson Claire encounters Jackman's mother. She explains to Claire that while although Jekyll had no descendants, Hyde did. She also explains that Klein Utterson did attempt to clone Jekyll but never managed to do it successfully. They did, however, manage to clone that which served as the catalyst to release Hyde. Claire is a clone of Alice, Jekyll's maid. Eventually, Hyde appears and in a confrontation with Mrs Utterson he sacrifices himself to save Jackman's family.
Six months later Jackman, apparently free of Hyde, has tracked down his mother. Confronting her he asks about his origins, asserting that he couldn't possibly be descended from Jekyll. She tells him that she is not the descendant of Jekyll, but rather a descendant of Edward Hyde. The final shot of the series is of Jackman's mother transforming into her own Hyde persona, that of Mrs. Utterson.
Development
Jeffrey Tayor of Stagescreen Productions had the idea of a modern version of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the mid-1990s. He attempted to get it produced in the United States three times, but all three attempts fell through for various reasons. He returned to England from the west coast of the United StatesWest Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
and joined with Hartswood Films when Elaine Cameron was scouting for ideas for a supernatural thriller. Cameron then approached Steven Moffat for a script, and a six-part series was commissioned by the BBC's Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter is an English television executive who has been the executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's Los Angeles base since January 2009...
and John Yorke in November 2005.
BBC America signed on to provide co-production funding in March 2006. The producers regularly met with Moffat for brainstorming sessions. Cameron's assistant took notes from these conversations, after which they would look over the notes and start the process again. The producers invited Moffat to "write anything", with the intention of cutting the material back later. However, they were reluctant to cut material once they saw it on the page. The first episode starts with Jackman already knowing about his alter ego. Because the plot of Jekyll begins after the story has developed for the characters, Nesbitt says that the show feels like it is a second series.
Moffat explicitly describes the series as a sequel, rather than an adaptation, stating the Jekyll of the original story really existed, and Jackman is his "modern-day descendant dealing with the same problems". As Jekyll and Hyde is such a well known phrase, Moffat labored over what to call the series, eventually deciding upon Jekyll because that word "carries the name Hyde". The final episode replaces the title "Jekyll" with "Hyde". Producer Elaine Cameron says the one word title gives the series a "very modern feel". Moffat initially named the character Jekyll rather than Jackman, but found it cumbersome to constantly explain that the book had not been written in this alternate universe. Instead he chose a version where the book exists, but changed the name to Jackman. Otherwise, Cameron felt, the character would appear stupid by not realising what was happening when turning into Hyde.
The scene between Tom and Katherine was expanded slightly in the sixth episode to keep their relationship active to facilitate a second series. However, no further episodes were commissioned. In an August 2007 interview, Moffat told Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
that he had a sequel written for the miniseries "should the BBC be interested".
Following Jekyll, Moffat became a co-writer on another TV series with a single, historical but fictional, name, Sherlock. This work brought the "consulting detective" into the 21st century.
Casting
Murphy's Law (TV series)
Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer, Tommy Murphy. There were five series of the drama, shown on BBC One. The first two were composed of individual stories. Series three, four...
. At the conclusion of the meeting, she offered him a script for Jekyll, suggesting that he might like the role. Nesbitt took the script role as a way of putting a distance between his previous work. The casting of Nesbitt as Tom Jackman and Hyde was publicised on 12 December 2005, but filming was not scheduled to begin until September 2006, increasing Nesbitt's anticipation to play the roles. Writer Steven Moffat said that the dual-role required a very skilled actor, and a well-known actor was necessary because it was such an expensive show to produce. The production team decided Nesbitt's two characters would be mainly differentiated over a change in performance rather than by extensive make-up because they wanted Hyde to be able to walk around in public without attracting attention.
Michelle Ryan, known for her long-running role as Zoe Slater
Zoe Slater
Zoe Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michelle Ryan. She made her first appearance on the 18 September 2000...
in the soap opera EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, was revealed by tabloid newspaper The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
to have been cast as "Jekyll's sultry assistant" (Katherine Reimer) in August 2006. Ryan believed herself to be too young for the part, though that aspect had already been written into the character. To prepare, she consulted the Royal College of Psychiatry. Denis Lawson
Denis Lawson
Denis Stamper Lawson is a Scottish actor and director. He is known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and as Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero, but is best known for playing the part of Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Early life:Lawson was...
was cast as Peter Syme. The actor consulted his post-graduate son for information on Syme's job. Ryan dyed her hair red for the role to help differentiate her from Tom Jackman's wife.
Gina Bellman was cast as Claire Jackman. However, writer Moffat initially doubted her suitability for the role because he associated Bellman too much with Jane Christie, the character she had played in his sitcom Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...
. Moffat did not imagine the character to be as "beautiful" as Bellman, but her audition was so good that he had to revise his vision of the character. Bellman originally auditioned for the role of Katherine, but the producers wanted someone younger to play that role. However, Bellman said that she talked herself out of the role by arguing that there should be an age gap between Katherine and Claire to avoid Katherine becoming a threat to the wife. Bellman approached her role as if Claire had become caught up in Tom's mid-life crisis
Mid-life crisis
Midlife crisis is a term coined in 1965 by Elliott Jaques and used in Western societies to describe a period of dramatic self-doubt that is felt by some individuals in the "middle years" or middle age of life, as a result of sensing the passing of their own youth and the imminence of their old age...
, an angle that impressed the producers.
Meera Syal
Meera Syal
Meera Syal MBE is a British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No...
was attracted to her role because Miranda was not a clichéd private detective and she thought the humour was "fresh". During the second filming block, Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
briefly joined the cast, playing the small but important role of Robert Louis Stevenson in flashback scenes in episode five.
Other roles included Paterson Joseph
Paterson Joseph
-Career:Born in London. Attended Cardinal Hinsley R.C High School in North West London. Joseph first trained at the Studio '68 of Theatre Arts, London – 1983–85 with Robert Henderson, then at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . In recent years he has had a high number of roles in...
as Benjamin Maddox, and Linda Marlowe as Ms Utterson.
Production
The series was filmed in two blocks of three episodes. The first three were directed by Douglas Mackinnon and the second three episodes by Matt Lipsey. It took an hour of make-up each day to turn Nesbitt into Hyde; a hairpiece lowered his hairline and prosthetics were added to his chin, nose and ear lobes. He also wore black contact lenses to make Hyde "soulless". After many debates, the producers decided that Hyde's imminent arrival would be indicated by the flash of a black eye. The eye imagery evolved during filming, and did not appear in the script.Filming began in September 2006 with the zoo sequence from the second episode, in which Benjamin's team have set Tom up to force out Hyde by placing his son, Eddie, in the lion's den. Writing the sequence at a late stage in the production, Moffat wanted to compare Hyde's natural instinct to kill to that of a lion. This was shot on location at Heythrop Zoo, a private zoo in Chipping Norton run by Jim Clubb, whose firm Amazing Animals specialises in training animals for cinema and television. The Norman Foster-designed building in Chertsey, Surrey, which then housed the European Headquarters of video game designer and publisher Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, was used as The Klein & Utterson Institute. A large country estate near Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...
and in Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, on the south coast of England. It is south-south-west of London, west of Brighton, and south-east of the city of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Littlehampton east-north-east and Selsey to the...
was used for some of the scenes whilst on the run and in flashbacks. A disused Boys' school in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, and the Hammer House
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
in Wardour Street
Wardour Street
Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street.-History:...
, Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
were used in episode six. Filming concluded on 20 December 2006.
The schedule was tight for a complex production. The production team had twelve days to shoot each episode, which director Douglas Mackinnon says was the biggest challenge of the project. The required amount of material was shot for most of the episodes. However, an extra twenty minutes of material was filmed for episode six. Director Matt Lipsey recalls that the team struggled to cut the extra material whilst maintaining the integrity of the episode. Lipsey credits Moffat for not "being precious" over his material during the editing process, and points out that his willingness to cut superfluous material means that he is taken seriously when he argues for something to be retained.
The music was composed by Debbie Wiseman
Debbie Wiseman
Debbie Wiseman MBE is a composer for film and television. She studied at Trinity College of Music Junior Department, and then piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama....
. The orchestra featured approximately 18 pieces. Some cues featured the vocals of Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
to foreshadow the importance of a female voice.
Episodes
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Viewers / Share (million) / (%) |
Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Broadcast and reception
Jekyll was broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights from 9 p.m. A two-week break occurred between showings of the third and fourth episodes because the Live EarthLive Earth (2007 concert)
Live Earth is an annual event developed to combat climate change. The first series of benefit concerts were held on July 7, 2007. The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in eleven locations around the world which were broadcast to a mass global audience through televisions, radio,...
benefit concert was broadcast during its timeslot on 7 July. The series began airing on BBC America from 4 August, as part of a "Supernatural Saturday" programming strand. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Jekyll began broadcasting on ABC1
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...
, Sundays at 8.30 p.m. from 2 March 2008 with a double episode back-to-back each week. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Jekyll began broadcasting on Showcase, beginning at the end of August 2007 and on BBC Canada
BBC Canada
BBC Canada is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel. It presents programming primarily from the BBC. BBC Canada is a joint venture between Shaw Media and BBC Worldwide.-Programming:Main article: List of programs broadcast by BBC Canada...
, Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. from 26 March 2008. Also in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Wednesday at 11:55 p.m. from 11 February 2009 on TVB Pearl
TVB Pearl
TVB Pearl is one of the two free television services in Hong Kong that mainly broadcast in the English language, the other being ATV World. It is owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited, and together with its sister Cantonese language station TVB Jade, is broadcast from TVB City at 77...
. In the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Jekyll was broadcast in the summer of 2009 on Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
.
Certain edits were made to the United Kingdom broadcasts in order to remove language unsuitable for Saturday night BBC One audiences. For example, a line spoken by Hyde in episode one was changed from "Who the fuck is Mr Hyde?" to "Who the hell is Mr Hyde?"
James Jackson of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
rated the first episode four out of five stars, calling Nesbitt's performance as Hyde "as entertainingly OTT as a dozen Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
villains, with a palpable sense of menace to boot". The conspiracy plot is praised as a storyline that distinguishes this series from other adaptations. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Stephen Pile criticised the script for "veering between Hammer horror and larky humour" and for being "cheesy". He also criticised Hyde's gravity-defying hijinks and mistook Michelle Ryan for a model. In the same newspaper, James Walton called the first episode a combination of "a good yarn with several nicely thoughtful touches". David Cornelius of DVDTalk was full of compliments for the series, summing up its review with the statement "six episodes, 300 minutes, not a single one of them wasted. 'Jekyll' is this year's finest television event".
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, commenting on the series being part of their 2008 line-up, said "This classic horror tale has been given a modern make-over that will leave you on the edge of your seat and begging for more. James Nesbitt is outstanding as the new Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Nesbitt was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his roles. Paterson Joseph received a mention in the nominations for the 2008 Screen Nation
Screen Nation
The Screen Nation Film & TV Awards was founded in 2003 by , as a platform to raise the profile of black British and international film and television talent....
awards.
Home release
The BBFCBritish Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
rated all episodes as a 15 certificate on 11 June 2007. Jekyll: Season One was released for region 2 on 30 July 2007 by Contender Home Entertainment. It includes uncut episodes, including restoration of some swearing cut from the BBC broadcasts. As DVD Verdict says about this uncut version, "the language is saucier, the violence a bit more bloody, and the sex more primal." The disc contains audio commentaries on two episodes: producer Elaine Cameron, writer Steven Moffat and first-block director Douglas Mackinnon commentate on episode one, while executive producer Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue is an English television producer and media executive. She is founder and chairman of the independent television production company Hartswood Films....
, second-block director Matt Lipsey and actress Gina Bellman comment upon the sixth episode. The set also contains two documentaries: "Anatomy of a Scene" focuses upon the production of the zoo sequence in episode two, while "The Tale Retold" covers the evolution of the series. The first Region 1 release occurred in the United States on September 18, 2007, although the Region 1 Canadian release was delayed until October 9, following the Canadian broadcast of the series on Showcase, which commenced at the end of August 2007.
External links
- Jekyll at Hartswood Films
- Jekyll at BBC America
- Jekyll at the British Film InstituteBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...