The co-creators and writers of Life on Mars and Ashes To Ashes are working on a new paranormal drama for the BBC titled The Living and the Dead. And they're promising it will be "very, very scary." Excellent.
BBC One and BBC America have just announced their latest television series from Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham. It's a supernatural period drama that (according to the press release) the creators are both calling, "moving, tender, sensual…and very, very scary."
The series is set in the English countryside in the year 1888 and follows main character Nathan Appleby as he attempts to prove that life doesn't stop after death. The official synopsis goes into further detail:
Somerset, England, 1888. A land and a community on the edge of monumental change, on the great hinge between ancient traditional ways and an industrial, scientific future. A land of ghosts and myths, poltergeists and demons - if there was ever a time for those ghosts to rise out of the ground, this would be that time. At the heart of this small community is Nathan Appleby, a reluctant gentleman farmer who is obsessed with proving the existence of the afterlife.
In the new original drama, this complex and compelling man will investigate hauntings, paranormal happenings, and ghostly visitations, encouraged by the Society for Psychical Research. But as these terrifying investigations become ever more frequent and ever more scary, Nathan starts to see and hear disturbing things that he simply cannot have imagined. Will Nathan's interest in the occult begin to threaten his family, his livelihood and even his sanity?
The more horror TV the better, we say. There's no casting news or release dates attached to this project yet, however the series plans to shoot in the West Country of England next year. Fingers crossed for this one.
Image from the Robert E. Jackson collection via Seattle Times.