This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 2nd July 2016.
The Living and The
Dead: Tuesday, BBC One
Life Inside Jail: Hell
on Earth: Tuesday, STV
The
gas-lit brainchild of Life on Mars
creators Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, The Living and The Dead is a supernatural period drama which
doesn’t scrimp on effective bumps and scares.
Part
of that uniquely British sub-genre known as folk horror – a cult gathering
epitomised by such classic films as The
Wicker Man and Blood on Satan’s Claw
– it unfolds in the innately disquieting
setting of late 19th century Somerset.
Inevitably,
this rural locale boasts creeping traces of ancient pre-Christian religion,
psychosexual weirdness and demonic possession.
Our photogenic guides are a
bright, modern young couple played by Colin Morgan (Merlin; Humans) and Charlotte Spencer. Intensely sensitive Nathan
is a pioneering psychologist – a useful vocation in this increasingly unhinged environment
- while jolly Charlotte is a leading photographer. It’s only a matter of time
before her monochrome snaps capture something horrifically inexplicable.
You
knew things were about to go drastically awry when, after returning to Nathan’s
ailing farming community, Charlotte breezed, “A few weeks in the country are
just what we need!”
Little
did she realise that the local vicar’s teenage daughter had been possessed by a
guttural maniac. What’s more, dangerous supernatural forces appear to be
targeting her husband. But at least the industrial revolution has come along to
rescue the area’s agricultural fortunes. Hasn’t it?
Bathed
in a pleasingly spooky, insidious atmosphere, this promising yarn benefits
greatly from elegant direction by Alice Troughton (Doctor Who), although I wish she’d resisted the temptation to
include those hoary old horror props, the creepy Victorian doll and rocking
horse. And I’m not yet convinced by the incorporation of a time travel element,
which so far threatens to gild the lily. However, I can’t fault its ambition.
Inventive adult ghost stories are all too rare on TV these days, so I’m willing
to give it the benefit of my niggling doubts. So far it has the potential to
become a haunted gem.
The
horror continued in Life Inside Jail:
Hell on Earth, a two-part documentary filmed in one of New York’s largest, toughest
jails.
Despite
being familiar territory – American jailbirds must spend at least 25% of their
cell time speaking to British documentary crews – it was, as such programmes
always are, a sombrely voyeuristic account of a society gone awry.
Home
to a thousand male and female inmates, the prison finds petty criminals rubbing
shoulders with people accused of murder. Inevitably, we witnessed lives
destroyed by drugs. One desperate young addict, who’d never been in trouble
with the police before, was accused of murdering a woman to feed his habit.
Trapped in a waking nightmare, he looked utterly dazed by what he’d done.
To
stress the point that drug addiction can sink its fangs into anyone, the
programme also included saddening scenes of a tearful mother, incarcerated for
drug crimes, being visited by her daughters and grandchild. If that weren’t
miserable enough, one of her daughters was later imprisoned in the same jail
for heroin possession. History repeats itself without remorse.
As
for the armed prison guards, they were typically willing to talk about their
work on camera. It must be a welcome break from the ever-present threat of
violence.
One
guard admitted that he often thinks he’s crazy for choosing such a dangerous
and depressing job. “It’s hopeless for society, man,” he sighed, as all around him
an endless cycle of tragedy ensued.
Another
guard was reduced to mordant giggles as she talked about some of the insane
behaviour she encounters on a daily basis. Sometimes, all you can do is laugh
to stop from crying.
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