DVD: Jekyll (BBC 2007)

Until almost literally the last second, I was going to give this a complete rave review as one of the best SF dramas I've seen. A hugely entertaining 5hr30min that kept piling on twist after twist, was laced with humour, scares, violence, gore, and drama and just never let up.

It had a terrific cast with James Nesbitt (not an actor I've ever been keen on) giving a tour de force performance as Dr Jackman/Hyde in which he goes from Oscar Wilde wit to Hannibal Lecter homicidal mania in the blink of an eye. Gina Bellman at first appears a docile wife but soon reveals a fascinating and complex character; I'd always considered Bellman as little more than eye candy but I was wrong, she is an outstanding actress able to counter Nesbitt at his maddest. Add Denis Lawson doing urbane sinister, Paterson Joseph wild-eyed and manically witty (and American!), Meera Syal as a caustic private detective and Fenella Woolgar (Agatha Christie in Dr.Who) as Syal's assistant and pregnant lover, and Michelle Ryan doing pretty but intelligent and sensitive as the psychiatric nurse.

And Steven (Dr.Who) Moffit's dialogue is razor-sharp.

All I can say is: Woah!

So why did they did they totally fuck it up at the last second with a twist which completely destroyed the entire point of the fucking series?

The premise is that an outwardly respectable medical research company is exploiting the legacy of Dr.Jekyll and that they've known for years what's going to happen to James Nesbitt and they want to exploit his alter ego. In the last second we find out that the mastermind of the company is exactly the same sort of monster that Hyde is. Leaving out the twist would have left a loose end but wouldn't have hurt it the way the twist does.

I'm heartbroken.

If I ever watch it again, I'm going to stop it before the final scene and pretend it never happened. Until then it was great, great, great.