Clearly, period dramas are very much on trend in television at the moment, as Downton Abbey has opened the floodgates for shows such as Peaky Blinders, The Knick and now The Living And The Dead. Newly commissioned by BBC America and BBC One, the six episode drama hails from Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham – the creative forces behind hit dramas Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes. Each episode will be an hour long, and the show falls into the more supernatural side of the network’s programming.
Set in Somerset, England, in 1888, the show finds the isle on the brink of profound and fundamental social and industrial change. Against this shifting backdrop, farmer Nathan Appleby indulges his fascination with the concept of an afterlife by investigating all manner of unexplained phenomena – with the support of the Society for Psychical Research. During the course of his explorations into the spectral plane, Appleby begins to uncover increasingly disturbing things that threaten the very basis of his sanity, his life, and that of those close to him.
The show’s creators, Pharoah and Graham explained their intentions for the show:
“We are as excited about this show as anything since Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes – we want it to be moving, tender, sensual… and very, very scary.”
SVP of Programming for BBC America added:
“We look forward to teaming up once again with Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, and our colleagues in the BBC, on a drama that will haunt and thrill our Supernatural Saturday audience.”
No word yet on casting, but with such a strong and distinctive leading role, there will almost certainly be some fierce competition when it comes to the final choice. With production scheduled to begin in the UK in 2015, we can expect to hear further developments shortly.
