Friday 22 August 2014

BBC America order THE LIVING AND THE DEAD from co-creators of LIFE ON MARS

Friday 22 August 2014

Writers Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, who co-created Life on Mars and were responsible for its spin-off Ashes to Ashes, have had a paranormal drama picked up by BBC America. THE LIVING AND THE DEAD will concern Nathan Appleby; a "gentleman farmer" living in 1888 who's obsessed with proving the existence of an afterlife. This leads Appleby to investigate various supernatural events in Victorian England. The series will begin filming next year in the West Country of England.

Interested to see how this one turns out, although Pharoah and Graham were dually responsible for two of the most appalling dramas of recent times: 2008's archaeological nonsense Bonekickers and 2012's awful supernatural drama about lawyer angels, Eternal Law. Graham's also written one of the worst modern Doctor Who episodes (series 2's "Fear Her") and the divisive series 6 two-parter "The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People". Pharoah's perhaps had better solo success, adapting Case Histories novels for a recent series starring Jason Isaacs.

Still, while everything we know about The Living and the Dead is sketchy and not particularly original-sounding, I'm a sucker for Victorian horror shows.