Ultraviolet Episode 1: 'Habeas Corpus'

In all my years of watching movies and the telly, there have only been two times when I've looked at an actor on the screen, said "they're going to be a huge star someday" and been right. The first was in the late '80's, when I saw the early Renny Harlin film Prison, starring Viggo Mortensen.

The second was this show, and a gentleman named Idris Elba.

Elba's work here - his quiet menace, huge physical presence and emotional depth - was such a strong anchor that when an abortive US remake was attempted, Elba and his character of Vaughan Rice was moved over wholesale. And it's not like the rest of the show's cast (with one major exception I'll mention later) are slouches.

More of Elba as we go along… first, let's talk about how British TV made a programme about vampires in which the word ‘vampire’ is never used.

Ultraviolet was the brainchild of Joe Ahearne (best known these days for key Doctor Who revival episodes like "Dalek" and "Bad Wolf"), who wrote and directed all 6 episodes. Until Ultraviolet aired on Channel 4 UK in 1998, he was best known for writing a couple of episodes of the popular show This Life, where he met Ultraviolet's future star Jack Davenport. When he pitched the show (he claims) he hadn't seen any Buffy or Angel… and his original idea for a show about a vampire detective which he had envisaged years before had shifted (mostly for practical filming reasons) to one about a group which hunted them.

His take was a smart one: to bring the vampire mythos into something of more a science fiction approach - no fangs or changing shape here. The elements of the folklore that do appear are given interesting tweaks: as well as not appearing in mirrors, vampires leave no trace on any form of recording equipment, from CCTV to fingerprint ink - they have to use voice encoders to be able to talk on the phone (which provides some nicely creepy touches later). And those hunting them have to shift their game too… carbon dum-dum bullets instead of wooden stakes, allicin-based gas grenades instead of cloves of garlic. And, of course, the violent effect of ultraviolet light.

As noted above, nobody in the show ever uses the word 'vampire' - instead, they're either Code Fives (explained in a nice scene in the pilot) or 'leeches'.

The other factor in Ahearne's concept is a robustly vicious take on the Catholic church, while retaining some sympathy for its congregation, reflected sardonically in the Latin titles of each episode. (This aspect of Northern Irish lad Ahearne's work also comes up in his later, also short-lived, occult/horror shows Strange and Apparitions, and his episode of Da Vinci's Demons.)

Episode 1, "Habias Corpus", starts as a cop show, but doesn't stay one for long. About five minutes, actually.

We're dropped into a scene of London at dusk, watching a scared man (Pollock, twitchily played by Ronnie Letham) looking worriedly at the driver of a black-windowed SUV. Pollock, a police informer, counterfeiter and coke-head, tries to reach his police contact Jack Beresford (a floppy-haired Stephen Moyer, who would come to fame in a very different vampire show, True Blood), who's busy getting drunk on his stag night. The call is taken by Jack's partner, best friend and not-at-all-crushing-on-Jack's-wife-to-be best man Mike Colefield (Davenport, best known these days as Norrington in Pirates of the Caribbean, and charming as hell here). Pollard tells Mike he's being hunted - Mike, mostly to stop Pollard crashing the wedding, comes to his aid.

In a sharply-directed sequence, Pollard is shot at point-blank range by the SUV driver in an amusement arcade, Mike finds the dying Pollard, gives chase into the nearby Tube station… and loses the killer, who apparently disappears around a corner which, according to the viewing mirror, is empty. Mike leaves… as does the killer, who was standing just around that corner. He doesn't show up in mirrors.

And, later, the killer meets up with Jack, saying "It's time".

The next morning, Jack has not shown up for his wedding to Kirsty (Collette Brown, the weak cast link I mentioned - a pretty girl with little chemistry or much acting talent, Mike's obsession for whom is hard to understand). Mike's pissed off - even more so when a supposed internal affairs (CIB) officer crashes the un-wedding.

Enter Idris Elba. Let's take a moment here…




At Mike's nick, Pollard's death and Jack's disappearance have been linked, and CIB - in the form of Elba's Vaughn Rice and Angie March (Susannah Harker, best known as Mattie Storin in the accept-no-substitutes original House Of Cards, lovely and tough-but-vulnerable here) are claiming they have proof Jack was on the take. And, Pollard was clearly shot at point blank range… but the CCTV footage from inside the amusement arcade shows nobody standing within range.

That night, Jack appears in Mike's surveilled flat: "They're a death squad, Mike! They've got orders to shoot me on sight!”, and Mike meets him later in a deserted play-park, asking Mike to find out who's hunting him.

Mike follows a Proper Copper's Hunch that Vaughan and Angie aren't what they seem, (it turns out that Vaughan is a discharged Gulf War 1 veteran, Angie a haematologist) and also finds a street artist witness who provides a sketch of the killer. A quick search of mugshots later, and Mike's in a rather lovely flat by the river, at night. Inside are a bunch of counterfeit bills, blacked-out windows, a pillowcase with blood smears… and the killer, rapidly followed by a special forces unit deploying some unorthodox kit - tear gas grenades that just smell like garlic, pistols with mirror/camera attachments. The killer is shot with no warning, and a voice - Vaughan, commanding the unit - calls out "Code Five neutralised - send in the cleaners". Mike grabs a dropped gun and grenade, jumps out the window into the Thames and escapes.

At this point, Mike doesn't know who to trust - except for his friend, information source (and probable ex) Frances, who seems to be in the security services. (Frances, played with sexy sarcastic charm by Fiona Dolman, is no fan of Kirsty; "Oh - you still think she's nice…"). They examine the materiel Mike grabbed and discover the bullets are made of carbon.

The next morning, he follows Angie to, of all places, a church… where, looking at the Roman numerals of the hymn board, the last piece of the implausible puzzle falls into place.
The numeral V. Code Five.

After this penny drops, Mike is promptly captured by Vaughan, cuffed and introduced to Father Pearse Harman (Australian actor Philip Quast, icily menacing with a hint of melancholy), leading to this exchange:

Pearse: We're all on the same side. You must know by now what we're dealing with.
Mike: No, I know what you think you're dealing with. I can't help that.
Pearse: You believe Jack is still your friend.
Mike: Well, whatever he's done, he doesn't deserve a death sentence.
Pearse: I'm afraid that was carried out three nights ago. Before you last met.

Pearse lets Mike go, to discover Jack's true nature for himself… a nature Jack finally can't deny when they meet back at the play-park that night, especially as Mike has Jack at gunpoint - that mirror/camera attachment showing nothing in front of the gun. Jack's defence of his position - corruption and all - is that of a minority being hunted by the Establishment:

"We know it's got Vatican money. 'The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith', I think they call it now. They changed the name. Used to be The Inquisition."
and,
"Did they tell you I was evil? It's what the church always says, Mike. Women. Black. Disabled. Gay. Now us. Do you like living in the Middle Ages?"

Mike, pushed by Jack's needling him about Kirsty, shoots Jack in the chest. He leans in to check the body… and finds Jack's wearing a vest and gets bitten for his pains. Mike pulls his stolen grenade, which smashes the park's wooden roundabout into Jack. Mike pushes home a chunk of wood embedded in Jack's vest… and Jack explodes, leaving a pile of red dust.

When examined in hospital, Mike's bite has vanished. Disoriented, Mike heads back to the church… and can't enter, puking when he tries. And the dawn light is… troublesome. Instead, Mike returns to the police station and tells Vaughan and Angie they can pick Jack up now.

For good or ill, Mike is in, recruited to an invisible war between humans and the Code Fives, who seem to be working towards a greater control of their livestock. His bite, which only appears under ultraviolet light, is burned out by Angie with a laser, leaving a distinctive scar. She has a similar scar (as does Vaughan, shown earlier). Mike's shown where Jack's remains are kept in cryogenic storage - "It's a prison, not a mortuary", Vaughan tells him. Mike leaves Jack's wedding ring in the storage tube. Roll credits.

Overall, it's a damn good pilot. Mike's refusal to accept the nature of the Code Fives doesn't last long enough to make him a carrier of the Idiot Ball, the look and feel of the show is conveyed quickly and in a fairly lean way, the world-building is consistent and thoughtful. The cast take the premise seriously, and the classic Sweeney-style flavour to the police station scenes helps lend verisimilitude to the world. The only real lag points are the various scenes I didn't mention between Mike and Kirsty (though Davenport tries hard, he's just not got a lot to work with from Brown's performance).

First time I saw the show, when it aired, I was intrigued. The five episodes that followed rewarded my interest.

NOTES

Habias Corpus means, of course, "you must have the body".

Note should be made of the score and lovely opening credit music by Sue Hewitt (other than a short film for Ahearne, her only credit). Other than a bit of floridness in the first scene (and dreadful diegetic fake pop music in the stag night pub), the music works well (especially in the assassination scene), carrying more than a hint of Philip Glass's Candyman score.

Hey, It’s 1998!: Huge mobile phones. People smoking. Jack’s hair.

A major feature of the show, highlighted from the start, is the nature of surveillance, especially in the context of the Code Five’s invisibility to much of it. A fascinating glimpse into how pervasive this was becoming, even pre-9/11.

The palpable chemistry between Mike and Jack - considerably more than between either of them and Kirsty - surely deserved some shipping!

QUOTES

Mike: Where's all the crosses?
Angie: And holy water? Jury's out on that. It's a bit like homeopathy. It's a question of faith, on both sides. They can be superstitious, too. In my opinion, religion is a placebo, which isn't to say placebos can't work.
Mike: How is all this kept quiet? I mean, a body turns up drained...
Angie: Doesn't happen. Successful parasites don't kill their host. They don't drain their prey unless they want to recruit, and they're very careful about who they recruit. Like we are.


Pearse: If people like you don't take a stand now, do you know where your loved ones are going to be in fifty years' time? Battery farms. Believe me. Our free-range days are over.