Paradox (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Paradox is a 2009 British
science fiction
police drama
, starring Tamzin Outhwaite
as Detective Inspector Rebecca Flint. Written by Lizzie Mickery and produced by Clerkenwell Films
for the BBC
, it was filmed and set in Manchester
, England
.
Flint heads a police team played by Mark Bonnar
and Chiké Okonkwo
, working with a scientist played by Emun Elliott
, as they attempt to prevent disasters foretold by images being sent from the future.
A first series aired on BBC One
and BBC HD
during November and December in five hour-long episodes. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, and it has been reported that there will be no second series.
, said that they were looking for something "different from the traditional formula of investigating a crime that has already taken place" and premise for the series, the police having knowledge of future incidents, was developed. Lizzie Mickery (The 39 Steps
, The State Within
) was chosen to write the series and she said she has "always been interested in the decisions you're not aware you are making" and the series was based on the "moral and emotional implications of having the ability to change the future". The series was then commissioned by Ben Stephenson
and Jay Hunt
for BBC One
with executive producers Patrick Spence, for BBC Northern Ireland
, and Ferguson. The series was produced by Marcus Wilson and directed by Simon Cellan-Jones
and Omar Madha. Filming began in Greater Manchester
, England
in June 2009, with the majority of filming in the Northern Quarter district of the City of Manchester
. The Imperial War Museum North
is used as the backdrop for Dr King's place of employment, Prometheus Labs.
Filming was completed over 13 weeks and Fergison said: "Each episode is set within a very short time period so the changeable weather caused havoc."
), Detective Sergeant Ben Holt (Mark Bonnar
) and Detective Constable Callum Gada (Chiké Okonkwo
) investigate images being broadcast to an eminent astrophysicist Dr Christian King's (Emun Elliott
) laboratory, which appear to show catastrophic events in the future.
In The Daily Telegraph
, James Walton said that despite the "exciting" climactic scenes, "[s]adly, by then the show's complete absence of internal logic (or, if you prefer, its overwhelming silliness) meant that it was beyond help." Comparing with American series FlashForward
and ITV1
's Collision
, Alex Hardy from The Times
said that the former "is currently doing a much better job at such space-time contemplation" and that the "'working back from an accident' format unfolded much more deliciously" in the latter. Following the second episode, The Times' Andrew Billen said that although the last 10 minutes were exciting, "[t]he difficulty lay in the 50 minutes of scratchy dialogue, robotic acting and general misery that it took to get there." Jeremy Clay from the Leicester Mercury
also liked the climax but said "the rest was utterly daft", the programme tried the patience of The Observer
' s Phil Hogan and Tom Sutcliffe
from The Independent
said that "the Prometheus Innovation Satellite Downlink offers a perfect acronym for the state you'd have to be in to take this kind of thing seriously".
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...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
police drama
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
, starring Tamzin Outhwaite
Tamzin Outhwaite
Tamzin Maria Outhwaite is an award-winning English actress. She became known for her role as Melanie Owen in the British soap opera EastEnders, whom she portrayed from 1998 until 2002.-Early career:...
as Detective Inspector Rebecca Flint. Written by Lizzie Mickery and produced by Clerkenwell Films
Clerkenwell Films
Clerkenwell Films is an award-winning British film and television production company, which has produced several drama and comedy programmes for the BBC, the ITV network, Channel 4 and E4 in the United Kingdom. It was co-founded by the actor John Hannah and the producer Murray Ferguson...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, it was filmed and set in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Flint heads a police team played by Mark Bonnar
Mark Bonnar
Mark Bonnar is a Scottish actor who is best known is playing Bruno Jenkins in Casualty. He has also acted in afterlife, Taggart and Wire in the Blood. He has appeared in Nuclear Secrets and The Bill in 2007. In 2009, he starred in the BBC One series Paradox...
and Chiké Okonkwo
Chiké Okonkwo
Chiké Okonkwo is an English actor, known for portraying PC Clark in New Tricks and DC Callum Gada in Paradox.-Background:Born and raised in Kingston upon Thames, Okonkwo is of Nigerian descent...
, working with a scientist played by Emun Elliott
Emun Elliott
Emun Elliott is a Scottish actor, known for portraying Dr Christian King in Paradox.-Background:Brought up in Portobello, Edinburgh, Elliott attended George Heriot's School before beginning a degree in English Literature and French at the University of Aberdeen...
, as they attempt to prevent disasters foretold by images being sent from the future.
A first series aired on 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...
and BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
during November and December in five hour-long episodes. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, and it has been reported that there will be no second series.
Production
Murray Ferguson, chief executive of Clerkenwell FilmsClerkenwell Films
Clerkenwell Films is an award-winning British film and television production company, which has produced several drama and comedy programmes for the BBC, the ITV network, Channel 4 and E4 in the United Kingdom. It was co-founded by the actor John Hannah and the producer Murray Ferguson...
, said that they were looking for something "different from the traditional formula of investigating a crime that has already taken place" and premise for the series, the police having knowledge of future incidents, was developed. Lizzie Mickery (The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (2008 film)
The 39 Steps is a 2008 British television feature-length adaptation of the John Buchan novel The Thirty-Nine Steps produced by the BBC. The adaptation is set on the eve of World War I, and sees mining engineer Richard Hannay caught up in a conspiracy following the death of a British spy in his...
, The State Within
The State Within
The State Within is a 2006 Seven-episode British television political drama, written by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival, produced by Grainne Marmion as a joint BBC–BBC America production, that was broadcast by BBC1 in the United Kingdom from Thursday, 2 November 2006.The protagonist of The State...
) was chosen to write the series and she said she has "always been interested in the decisions you're not aware you are making" and the series was based on the "moral and emotional implications of having the ability to change the future". The series was then commissioned by Ben Stephenson
Ben Stephenson
Ben Stephenson is an English television executive, who has been controller of drama commissioning at the BBC since September 2008.-Early life:Stephenson attended The Hewett School in Norwich before studying at Manchester University.-Television:...
and Jay Hunt
Jay Hunt (BBC)
Jay Hunt , is a United Kingdom-based television executive, appointed to the new post of Chief Creative Officer, Channel 4. She is a former controller of BBC One.-Early life:...
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...
with executive producers Patrick Spence, for BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content...
, and Ferguson. The series was produced by Marcus Wilson and directed by Simon Cellan-Jones
Simon Cellan-Jones
Simon Cellan-Jones is a Welsh television director and film director, who began his career as a production assistant in the mid-1980s, working on series such as Edge of Darkness. By the late 1980s he had worked his way up to become a director, and he gained credits on some of the most acclaimed...
and Omar Madha. Filming began in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in June 2009, with the majority of filming in the Northern Quarter district of the City of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. The Imperial War Museum North
Imperial War Museum North
Imperial War Museum North is a museum in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. One of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum, the museum explores the impact of modern conflicts on people and society. It is the first branch of the Imperial War Museum to be...
is used as the backdrop for Dr King's place of employment, Prometheus Labs.
Filming was completed over 13 weeks and Fergison said: "Each episode is set within a very short time period so the changeable weather caused havoc."
Synopsis
Detective Inspector Rebecca Flint (Tamzin OuthwaiteTamzin Outhwaite
Tamzin Maria Outhwaite is an award-winning English actress. She became known for her role as Melanie Owen in the British soap opera EastEnders, whom she portrayed from 1998 until 2002.-Early career:...
), Detective Sergeant Ben Holt (Mark Bonnar
Mark Bonnar
Mark Bonnar is a Scottish actor who is best known is playing Bruno Jenkins in Casualty. He has also acted in afterlife, Taggart and Wire in the Blood. He has appeared in Nuclear Secrets and The Bill in 2007. In 2009, he starred in the BBC One series Paradox...
) and Detective Constable Callum Gada (Chiké Okonkwo
Chiké Okonkwo
Chiké Okonkwo is an English actor, known for portraying PC Clark in New Tricks and DC Callum Gada in Paradox.-Background:Born and raised in Kingston upon Thames, Okonkwo is of Nigerian descent...
) investigate images being broadcast to an eminent astrophysicist Dr Christian King's (Emun Elliott
Emun Elliott
Emun Elliott is a Scottish actor, known for portraying Dr Christian King in Paradox.-Background:Brought up in Portobello, Edinburgh, Elliott attended George Heriot's School before beginning a degree in English Literature and French at the University of Aberdeen...
) laboratory, which appear to show catastrophic events in the future.
Episodes
| # | Episode | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Viewers |
|---|
Reception
The series peaked at 4.81 million viewers for the first episode.In 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...
, James Walton said that despite the "exciting" climactic scenes, "[s]adly, by then the show's complete absence of internal logic (or, if you prefer, its overwhelming silliness) meant that it was beyond help." Comparing with American series FlashForward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
and ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
's Collision
Collision (TV series)
Collision is a five-part television drama miniseries, which debuted on ITV in November 2009. In the same month, it was also on PBS as a series in two parts. It tells the story of a group of strangers whose lives intertwine following a devastating car crash...
, Alex Hardy from 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...
said that the former "is currently doing a much better job at such space-time contemplation" and that the "'working back from an accident' format unfolded much more deliciously" in the latter. Following the second episode, The Times
Leicester Mercury
The Leicester Mercury is a British regional newspaper, owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust, for the city of Leicester and the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland...
also liked the climax but said "the rest was utterly daft", the programme tried the patience of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
Tom Sutcliffe (broadcaster)
Thomas Sutcliffe is a British journalist and arts broadcaster.Sutcliffe studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge...
from The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
said that "the Prometheus Innovation Satellite Downlink offers a perfect acronym for the state you'd have to be in to take this kind of thing seriously".