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The Second Coming (TV serial)
Encyclopedia
The Second Coming is a two-part British
television
drama first screened on ITV
in the UK
in February 2003. It concerns the realisation of Steve Baxter (played by Christopher Eccleston
) that he is in fact the Son of God
, and has just a few days to find the human race's Third Testament and thus avert the Apocalypse
.
It was written by Russell T Davies (later head writer of the 2005 series of Doctor Who
), and produced by the independent Red Production Company
. The programme was originally commissioned as four one-hour episodes by Channel 4
in 1999; however, when new executives took over running the drama department at that channel, they decided not to pursue the project. Davies and Red's founder Nicola Shindler
took the project to the BBC
, who quickly turned it down; it found a home on ITV, a channel that had gained a reputation for producing mainstream, unchallenging, "middle-of-the-road" drama in recent years.
Screened over two successive evenings in prime time on Sunday and Monday, 9–10 February 2003, The Second Coming gained viewing figures of over six million. Davies, who is an atheist, has said his intention was to provoke debate and get people thinking about religion.
Steven Baxter, a good-hearted but slightly awkward video shop worker from Manchester
, disappears for forty days and forty nights after a drunken night out with his friends to celebrate his best friend Judy's divorce, during which he shared a kiss with her. He is found wandering Saddleworth Moor
, and he claims to be the second coming of Jesus
. At first he is met with scepticism, and is even locked up. One of the few people who believes him is a young Catholic priest, who mentions an obscure Christian text that mentions that the lamb will be sent to the city of the North, followed by a series of numbers that turned out to be map co-ordinates. The recent death of the Pope is also seen as a sign. Steve escapes and, after one final night out before starting his duties, decides to indicate he is really the son of God to humanity by turning night into day over the small area of the football
stadium
at Maine Road
(he lets people know about it by advertising on the internet). The feat attracts the attention of the world's media. Steve then announces he must find the third testament within five days. He states that humanity needs to start taking responsibility for their actions, and that everyone, regardless of their religion or origin, needs to begin again and forget past conflicts. He also says that Christians should not boast about being right, then reveals that currently Heaven
is empty, while Hell
is bursting to the seams. There is much hysteria and panic; particularly when The Devil
and several demons possess people (only indicated by silver eyes) to cause trouble. Satan takes possession of a man named Johnny Tyler that Judy met through a dating agency. He eventually reveals to Judy he wants Steve to fail and fall into despair, so that after Armageddon
God will judge Steve's actions as a human and send him to hell
, and they can rule together. In a deleted scene, it is revealed Satan also wants God to return to being the merciless, angry God of the Old Testament.
Later, it is revealed that Steve's earthly father could not have fathered him as he was born sterile, another indicator that Steve is really the son of God.
There is also media frenzy surrounding the events, especially after a tape is leaked of Steve saying that the world will end if the testament is not found, and he is taken into police protection. Some of Steve's friends accept him as the Messiah
- Pete (who kept his Christianity hidden, not knowing how his friends would react) and Fiona (who becomes crazed, as this is the first time she has ever believed). Judy (an atheist), remains sceptical. She and Steve have some heated arguments (at one point, in a fit of anger, Steve is tempted to use his godly powers to kill her), especially as despite being the son of God, Steve is neither omniscient (relying on information "downloading" into his head, which frustrates him too) nor omnipotent (e.g. he cannot heal the sick). Steve later says that he does have powers, but he refuses to use them as he could get power mad, and reiterates it is up to humanity to sort themselves out this time. Judy is also confronted by several demons and manipulated into situations to get her to believe, which is part of Satan's plan to have Steve fall into despair.
During the next few days, Steve miraculously survives several attempts made on his life, including a bomb going off in a pub in which he is drinking. The devil and his demons also attempt to turn his father Frank against him, getting him hooked on drugs and alcohol and convincing him that he is now a joke in the public's eyes (one deleted scene saw him watching Bernard Manning
on TV making jokes at his expense). Frank tries to shoot Steve, but ends up killing Pete. After her husband leaves her, Fiona attempts suicide and tries to kill her children too. Also during this time Judy and Steve's relationship grows deeper, and they have sex.
Steve himself has no idea what the third testament will be; he receives too many candidates to figure out which one is the real one. The Chief Superintendent of the police, who is also possessed by a demon, has them thrown out, saying that even if it were there, Steve would not be able to make his broadcast to the world. Having failed to discover the Testament, the people of the world hide in their homes, fearing the world's end.
Steve then visits Judy in hope of trying to work out what the testament is, and Judy reveals to him that it is the record she is making of events. Judy, who is filmed night and day by cameras from the world's media around her house, makes spaghetti and laces it with rat poison
, but announces this to Steve before presenting it to him. She states that it is Judgment Day
, but for Steve and God, stating that it has been the existence of God or the argument about it which has led humanity to do so many bad things to one another. Steve is persuaded by Judy that he must die, and moreover make it permanent (in the sense of ceasing to exist rather than returning to heaven), so that humanity fights for itself rather than relying on the evils of fundamentalism
. This will not only be the death of him, but of God
, Satan
, Heaven
and Hell
- the end of all religion. She also says that the absence of any kind of afterlife
may scare people into living their lives properly.
Steve does not believe her at first, thinking she was influenced by the demons. He does one last divine "download" and, to his horror, realises that this is indeed the Third Testament, "the closing of the family business." He is scared at first, but then decides that it is time to die, and he eats his Last Supper
. Henceforth, the world goes back to normal, with a few people referring to Judy as "the woman who killed God", but she otherwise goes back to living an ordinary insignificant life, having married the policeman who guarded her despite everyone else leaving their jobs and posts in fear of the apparent apocalypse. Judy sees Johnny Tyler (who has no memory of being possessed) and asks him if she did the right thing, but he cannot answer (suggesting that the audience needs to decide for itself whether she did or not).
An earlier draft of the script features a twist ending in which Judy is married to Steve, who has simply given up his divinity and become human again, with only her recognising him. However, Davies was advised against ending the story this way by his friend and fellow writer Paul Abbott
, who felt that it cheated the audience.
Davies originally conceived the idea for the programme while on a car journey from Manchester to Liverpool
with his friend, the television producer
Tony Wood. His initial pitch to Nicola Shindler described a scene from the second episode, with the Son of God having returned to Earth, made love to the woman he loves and her asking him if he loves her.
The eventual production for ITV was produced by Anne Harrison-Baxter and directed by Adrian Shergold, with Davies and Shindler as executive producer
s. Davies himself directed some of the second unit
material featuring real-life television personalities such as Richard and Judy
and Trisha Goddard
commenting on Steven Baxter, seen throughout the programme along with news reports featuring real-life newsreaders such as Jon Snow
and Krishnan Guru-Murthy
. The bulk of filming took place during the summer of 2002.
The change from four one-hour episodes to two ninety-minute installments necessitated the cutting of much material from what would originally have been episode three, the opening half of the eventual second episode. Most of this material centred around Steve's friends and family being tested by the devil's servants as well as Steve's mother, who in the final edit is removed altogether and referred to only as having died some time beforehand. Some of this material was shot, and the scenes that did not make the programme were included as bonus features on the DVD
release of the serial, released the week after the programmes's UK broadcast. Also included on the disc was an audio commentary from Davies and Shergold.
The first episode, shown at 9pm on Sunday 9 February gained an average overnight viewing figure of 6.3 million, winning its timeslot ahead of the nearest competition, a documentary on the actor Christopher Reeve
on BBC One
, which gained 5.5 million, a 21% share. The second episode lost a sixth of its audience, with an average of 5.4 million viewers, beaten by the drama series In Deep on BBC One, which gained a figure of 6.6 million.
The Second Coming has also been shown in other countries – BBC America
broadcast the drama in the United States
in late 2003; it has also been seen in Canada
on Showcase
, and in Australia
on the ABC
. Some versions shown overseas are shorter, with certain scenes cut and the ending coming after the 'documentary' scenes rather than the very final scene in the supermarket car park seen in the UK version.
Critical reaction to the production was generally positive. The Observer
newspaper's reviewer, Kathryn Flett
, said that "the boldness of the subject matter was complemented by a script of considerable depth and humour, and there were performances of Bafta-grabbing brilliance from everybody involved" . She particularly praised the performances of the two leads: "Christopher Eccleston, never knowingly under-intense, was perfectly cast as the Everybloke suddenly gifted with the ability to provide answers to the big questions and perform medium-sized miracles... Sharp, burdened (or perhaps liberated?) by bad hair and make-up for most of the film proved herself yet again to be one of Britain's finest actresses."
The Daily Mail
reviewer Peter Paterson was equally positive, commenting that: "There's nothing TV executives like less than having to field endless complaints by outraged viewers, and last night's proceedings will attract them in swarms. To invite such protest by screening something as provocative and out of the usual rut of ITV1's standard fare is certainly courageous." In The Times
, Paul Hoggart
's verdict on the first episode was that: "It is intelligent, often amusing, and, at times, passionate and provocative. It throws down a gauntlet to religion, especially in tonight's conclusion, and something happens at the end which is probably deeply blasphemous... There are some clunks and bumps in the script, but most are smoothed over by excellent acting."
Writing in The Guardian
to preview the drama before it aired, Mark Lawson
said that: "Transmuting different genres like wine made from water — comedy into romance into thriller — Eccleston, Sharp, Davies and his director Adrian Shergold have created a world in which it soon ceases to seem odd that God chose Manchester. Steve only knows how they did it, but they have." Commenting on the US showing on BBC America, New York Magazine reviewer John Leonard called it "...an interesting argument about the cost benefits of the possible death of God. Rough, rude, and wonderfully acted."
The Second Coming featured in two major categories at the 2004 British Academy Television Awards
, the most important TV awards ceremony in the UK. In the Best Actor category Christopher Eccleston
lost out to Bill Nighy
(for State of Play) while the production itself was beaten by Charles II: The Power and The Passion
in the Best Drama Serial category.
Delivering the Huw Wheldon
Lecture at the Royal Television Society
's annual convention in Cambridge
in September 2005, Paul Abbott
praised The Second Coming as one of the few genuinely innovative British television drama productions of recent years, describing it as: "...a television masterpiece. It grappled with the most colossal subject matter in the return of a messiah to earth. Not in a Robert Powell way. Modern earth. Manchester, actually. And mainly the scruffy end."
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
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
drama first screened on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in the UK
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...
in February 2003. It concerns the realisation of Steve Baxter (played by Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
) that he is in fact the Son of God
Son of God
"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
, and has just a few days to find the human race's Third Testament and thus avert the Apocalypse
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
.
It was written by Russell T Davies (later head writer of the 2005 series of 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...
), and produced by the independent Red Production Company
Red Production Company
Red Production Company is a British independent television production company, formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, an experienced television producer who had worked on such prestige dramas as Our Friends in the North and Cracker...
. The programme was originally commissioned as four one-hour episodes by Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1999; however, when new executives took over running the drama department at that channel, they decided not to pursue the project. Davies and Red's founder Nicola Shindler
Nicola Shindler
Nicola Shindler is a British television producer and executive, the founder of Red Production Company, one of the foremost independent television drama production companies working in the UK today....
took the project to 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...
, who quickly turned it down; it found a home on ITV, a channel that had gained a reputation for producing mainstream, unchallenging, "middle-of-the-road" drama in recent years.
Screened over two successive evenings in prime time on Sunday and Monday, 9–10 February 2003, The Second Coming gained viewing figures of over six million. Davies, who is an atheist, has said his intention was to provoke debate and get people thinking about religion.
Storyline
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...
, disappears for forty days and forty nights after a drunken night out with his friends to celebrate his best friend Judy's divorce, during which he shared a kiss with her. He is found wandering Saddleworth Moor
Saddleworth Moor
Saddleworth Moor is an area of the South Pennines in northern England. It is a sparsely populated moorland and millstone grit divided between the metropolitan boroughs of Oldham and Kirklees, in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire respectively....
, and he claims to be the second coming of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
. At first he is met with scepticism, and is even locked up. One of the few people who believes him is a young Catholic priest, who mentions an obscure Christian text that mentions that the lamb will be sent to the city of the North, followed by a series of numbers that turned out to be map co-ordinates. The recent death of the Pope is also seen as a sign. Steve escapes and, after one final night out before starting his duties, decides to indicate he is really the son of God to humanity by turning night into day over the small area of the football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
at Maine Road
Maine Road
Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England that was home to Manchester City F.C. from its construction in 1923 until 2003...
(he lets people know about it by advertising on the internet). The feat attracts the attention of the world's media. Steve then announces he must find the third testament within five days. He states that humanity needs to start taking responsibility for their actions, and that everyone, regardless of their religion or origin, needs to begin again and forget past conflicts. He also says that Christians should not boast about being right, then reveals that currently Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
is empty, while Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
is bursting to the seams. There is much hysteria and panic; particularly when The Devil
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
and several demons possess people (only indicated by silver eyes) to cause trouble. Satan takes possession of a man named Johnny Tyler that Judy met through a dating agency. He eventually reveals to Judy he wants Steve to fail and fall into despair, so that after Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
God will judge Steve's actions as a human and send him to hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, and they can rule together. In a deleted scene, it is revealed Satan also wants God to return to being the merciless, angry God of the Old Testament.
Later, it is revealed that Steve's earthly father could not have fathered him as he was born sterile, another indicator that Steve is really the son of God.
There is also media frenzy surrounding the events, especially after a tape is leaked of Steve saying that the world will end if the testament is not found, and he is taken into police protection. Some of Steve's friends accept him as the Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
- Pete (who kept his Christianity hidden, not knowing how his friends would react) and Fiona (who becomes crazed, as this is the first time she has ever believed). Judy (an atheist), remains sceptical. She and Steve have some heated arguments (at one point, in a fit of anger, Steve is tempted to use his godly powers to kill her), especially as despite being the son of God, Steve is neither omniscient (relying on information "downloading" into his head, which frustrates him too) nor omnipotent (e.g. he cannot heal the sick). Steve later says that he does have powers, but he refuses to use them as he could get power mad, and reiterates it is up to humanity to sort themselves out this time. Judy is also confronted by several demons and manipulated into situations to get her to believe, which is part of Satan's plan to have Steve fall into despair.
During the next few days, Steve miraculously survives several attempts made on his life, including a bomb going off in a pub in which he is drinking. The devil and his demons also attempt to turn his father Frank against him, getting him hooked on drugs and alcohol and convincing him that he is now a joke in the public's eyes (one deleted scene saw him watching Bernard Manning
Bernard Manning
Bernard John Manning was an English comedian and nightclub owner. He was born and raised in Manchester in northwest England....
on TV making jokes at his expense). Frank tries to shoot Steve, but ends up killing Pete. After her husband leaves her, Fiona attempts suicide and tries to kill her children too. Also during this time Judy and Steve's relationship grows deeper, and they have sex.
Steve himself has no idea what the third testament will be; he receives too many candidates to figure out which one is the real one. The Chief Superintendent of the police, who is also possessed by a demon, has them thrown out, saying that even if it were there, Steve would not be able to make his broadcast to the world. Having failed to discover the Testament, the people of the world hide in their homes, fearing the world's end.
Steve then visits Judy in hope of trying to work out what the testament is, and Judy reveals to him that it is the record she is making of events. Judy, who is filmed night and day by cameras from the world's media around her house, makes spaghetti and laces it with rat poison
Rat poison
Rodenticides are a category of pest control chemicals intended to kill rodents.Single feed baits are chemicals sufficiently dangerous that the first dose is sufficient to kill....
, but announces this to Steve before presenting it to him. She states that it is Judgment Day
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
, but for Steve and God, stating that it has been the existence of God or the argument about it which has led humanity to do so many bad things to one another. Steve is persuaded by Judy that he must die, and moreover make it permanent (in the sense of ceasing to exist rather than returning to heaven), so that humanity fights for itself rather than relying on the evils of fundamentalism
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
. This will not only be the death of him, but of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
- the end of all religion. She also says that the absence of any kind of afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
may scare people into living their lives properly.
Steve does not believe her at first, thinking she was influenced by the demons. He does one last divine "download" and, to his horror, realises that this is indeed the Third Testament, "the closing of the family business." He is scared at first, but then decides that it is time to die, and he eats his Last Supper
Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...
. Henceforth, the world goes back to normal, with a few people referring to Judy as "the woman who killed God", but she otherwise goes back to living an ordinary insignificant life, having married the policeman who guarded her despite everyone else leaving their jobs and posts in fear of the apparent apocalypse. Judy sees Johnny Tyler (who has no memory of being possessed) and asks him if she did the right thing, but he cannot answer (suggesting that the audience needs to decide for itself whether she did or not).
An earlier draft of the script features a twist ending in which Judy is married to Steve, who has simply given up his divinity and become human again, with only her recognising him. However, Davies was advised against ending the story this way by his friend and fellow writer Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott is a BAFTA award-winning English television screenwriter and producer. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless,...
, who felt that it cheated the audience.
Production
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
with his friend, the television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
Tony Wood. His initial pitch to Nicola Shindler described a scene from the second episode, with the Son of God having returned to Earth, made love to the woman he loves and her asking him if he loves her.
The eventual production for ITV was produced by Anne Harrison-Baxter and directed by Adrian Shergold, with Davies and Shindler as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
s. Davies himself directed some of the second unit
Second unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
material featuring real-life television personalities such as Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a married couple who are both British television presenters and columnists. Since their marriage, their television appearances have been largely made as a couple. They are best known for presenting This Morning and...
and Trisha Goddard
Trisha Goddard
Patricia "Trisha" Goddard is a British television presenter and actress best known for her morning talk show, Trisha Goddard, which is broadcast on a mid morning slot on Channel 5 in the UK. In Australia she is known as a long time presenter of Play School.-Background:Goddard was born in London,...
commenting on Steven Baxter, seen throughout the programme along with news reports featuring real-life newsreaders such as Jon Snow
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
and Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy , is a British television presenter and journalist employed by Channel 4. He presents the Channel 4 Evening News and the foreign affairs programme Unreported World.-Education:...
. The bulk of filming took place during the summer of 2002.
The change from four one-hour episodes to two ninety-minute installments necessitated the cutting of much material from what would originally have been episode three, the opening half of the eventual second episode. Most of this material centred around Steve's friends and family being tested by the devil's servants as well as Steve's mother, who in the final edit is removed altogether and referred to only as having died some time beforehand. Some of this material was shot, and the scenes that did not make the programme were included as bonus features on the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of the serial, released the week after the programmes's UK broadcast. Also included on the disc was an audio commentary from Davies and Shergold.
The first episode, shown at 9pm on Sunday 9 February gained an average overnight viewing figure of 6.3 million, winning its timeslot ahead of the nearest competition, a documentary on the actor Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
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...
, which gained 5.5 million, a 21% share. The second episode lost a sixth of its audience, with an average of 5.4 million viewers, beaten by the drama series In Deep on BBC One, which gained a figure of 6.6 million.
The Second Coming has also been shown in other countries – 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...
broadcast the drama in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in late 2003; it has also been seen 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...
on Showcase
Showcase Television
Showcase is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Shaw Media. Showcase is a predominantly fiction-based service centred around scripted television series and films....
, and 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...
on the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. Some versions shown overseas are shorter, with certain scenes cut and the ending coming after the 'documentary' scenes rather than the very final scene in the supermarket car park seen in the UK version.
Critical reception
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,...
newspaper's reviewer, Kathryn Flett
Kathryn Flett
Kathryn Flett is a British TV critic, author, and star of the BBC's Grumpy Old Women series, was educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School, and Hammersmith and West London College....
, said that "the boldness of the subject matter was complemented by a script of considerable depth and humour, and there were performances of Bafta-grabbing brilliance from everybody involved" . She particularly praised the performances of the two leads: "Christopher Eccleston, never knowingly under-intense, was perfectly cast as the Everybloke suddenly gifted with the ability to provide answers to the big questions and perform medium-sized miracles... Sharp, burdened (or perhaps liberated?) by bad hair and make-up for most of the film proved herself yet again to be one of Britain's finest actresses."
The Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
reviewer Peter Paterson was equally positive, commenting that: "There's nothing TV executives like less than having to field endless complaints by outraged viewers, and last night's proceedings will attract them in swarms. To invite such protest by screening something as provocative and out of the usual rut of ITV1's standard fare is certainly courageous." In 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...
, Paul Hoggart
Paul Hoggart
Paul Hoggart is an English television critic and columnist. He is the youngest son of Richard Hoggart and brother of political journalist Simon Hoggart. His sister, Nicola, is a teacher.-Early life and Career:...
's verdict on the first episode was that: "It is intelligent, often amusing, and, at times, passionate and provocative. It throws down a gauntlet to religion, especially in tonight's conclusion, and something happens at the end which is probably deeply blasphemous... There are some clunks and bumps in the script, but most are smoothed over by excellent acting."
Writing in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
to preview the drama before it aired, Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...
said that: "Transmuting different genres like wine made from water — comedy into romance into thriller — Eccleston, Sharp, Davies and his director Adrian Shergold have created a world in which it soon ceases to seem odd that God chose Manchester. Steve only knows how they did it, but they have." Commenting on the US showing on BBC America, New York Magazine reviewer John Leonard called it "...an interesting argument about the cost benefits of the possible death of God. Rough, rude, and wonderfully acted."
The Second Coming featured in two major categories at the 2004 British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
, the most important TV awards ceremony in the UK. In the Best Actor category Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
lost out to Bill Nighy
Bill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...
(for State of Play) while the production itself was beaten by Charles II: The Power and The Passion
Charles II: The Power and The Passion
Charles II: The Power and the Passion is an award-winning British television mini-series, broadcast on BBC One in 2003, and produced by the BBC in association with the A&E Network in the United States...
in the Best Drama Serial category.
Delivering the Huw Wheldon
Huw Wheldon
Sir Huw Pyrs Wheldon OBE MC was a BBC broadcaster and executive.Wheldon was born in Prestatyn, Wales and educated at Friars School, Bangor. His father, Sir Wynn Wheldon, was a prominent educationalist, who had been awarded the DSO for gallantry in the First World War...
Lecture at the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
's annual convention in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
in September 2005, Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott is a BAFTA award-winning English television screenwriter and producer. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless,...
praised The Second Coming as one of the few genuinely innovative British television drama productions of recent years, describing it as: "...a television masterpiece. It grappled with the most colossal subject matter in the return of a messiah to earth. Not in a Robert Powell way. Modern earth. Manchester, actually. And mainly the scruffy end."
External links
- The Second Coming at TelevisionHeaven.co.uk
- The Second Coming at the Red Production CompanyRed Production CompanyRed Production Company is a British independent television production company, formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, an experienced television producer who had worked on such prestige dramas as Our Friends in the North and Cracker...
official website.