Jekyll (miniseries)
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Jekyll |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| year | 2007 |
| length | 55 minutes |
| Episodes | 6 in 1 season |
| genre | thriller |
| idea | Steven Moffat |
| music | Debbie Wiseman |
| First broadcast | June 16, 2007 on BBC One |
| German-language first broadcast |
January 9, 2009 on Arte |
| occupation | |
| |
Jekyll is a British television series written by Steven Moffat and produced by Hartswood Films and Stagescreen Productions for BBC One in 2007 .
action
Dr. Tom Jackman is a present-day scientist. For some time now (six months at the beginning of the first episode) he has been transforming himself into a more animalistic embodiment of himself. With this other person - Mr. Hyde - Jackman makes an agreement: They share the body peacefully under certain conditions. Jackman has a wife and two children whose existence he keeps a secret from Mr. Hyde. He tries to keep Hyde under control with the help of modern technical aids and thus to lead a peaceful coexistence with him. They inform each other of their whereabouts using a dictaphone and Hyde is not allowed to kill anyone, otherwise Tom will turn himself in to the police. This works for the most part until Jackman finds out that both of them, Jackmann and Hyde, are the cause of a covert organization conspiracy spanning more than a century. Over the course of the series, a genetic connection between Jackman and the allegedly childless 19th-century Dr. Henry Jekyll suspects which is cleared up in the last episode.
backgrounds
In the eyes of its creators, the series is more of a continuation of the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an adaptation of the material. The story of Robert Louis Stevenson serves as the backstory for the series.
Episode list
| No. | Title (German) | First broadcast in Germany | First broadcast in GB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brief summary | ||||
| 1 | Episode 1 "Jekyll" | 09/01/2009 | 06/16/2007 | Douglas Mackinnon |
| Tom Jackman is plagued by a supernatural transformation. He regularly becomes a younger, stronger, and more animalistic version of himself. He hires psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer. She should watch the changes in his personality. Tom later finds out that his separated wife, Claire, is paying private detective Miranda Calender to find out why Tom left Claire. Calender discovers that Jackman is apparently the last living descendant of Dr. Henry Jekyll is although he had no children. However, she doesn't know who the strangers who are also watching Jackman are. Meanwhile Hyde is getting stronger and stronger and the unknowns show up in the person of Benjamin. | ||||
| 2 | Episode 2 "Jekyll" | January 16, 2009 | 06/23/2007 | Douglas Mackinnon |
| Tom is on the run. The reason for this is a meeting with his mother, who abandoned him as an infant. In addition, Hyde now knows the place of residence of Claire and Tom's sons. Furthermore, Tom now knows about the organization that is hunting him or Hyde. But Tom doesn't know exactly why. | ||||
| 3 | Episode 3 "Jekyll" | 01/23/2009 | 06/30/2007 | Douglas Mackinnon |
| Tom returns home to find that the organization hunting him is Klein & Utterson - the company he works for. Hyde kills Benjamin - one of the company's bosses - and is then kidnapped by "Klein & Utterson" in a metal coffin, a life support box. In doing so, they take advantage of Tom's claustrophobia. | ||||
| 4th | Episode 4 "Jekyll" | 01/30/2009 | 07/14/2007 | Matt Lipsey |
| Miranda Calender confronts Klein & Utterson with allegation that Tom was Dr. Jekyll's clone is. Tom's old friend Peter, who works for "Klein & Utterson", has to admit that they don't know where Tom is from. Meanwhile, flashbacks show how Tom and Claire met and how Hyde "woke up" for the first time. | ||||
| 5 | Episode 5 "Jekyll" | 02/06/2009 | 07/21/2007 | Matt Lipsey |
| Tom is pronounced dead. Hyde has taken control after Tom succumbs to the agony of claustrophobia. Hyde delves into Tom's memories and discovers a genetic memory of Dr. Henry Jekyll. This way he recognizes that it has never changed because of a serum (this was assumed by "Klein & Utterson" and tried to reproduce). He also discovers that Jekyll's maid looks exactly like Claire. Shortly afterwards, "Klein & Utterson" kidnaps his wife and sons. | ||||
| 6th | Episode 6 "Hyde" | 02/13/2009 | 07/28/2007 | Matt Lipsey |
| Hyde and Tom have completely united their personalities. Tom needs Hyde's physical strength while Hyde needs Tom's emotional maturity. It is revealed that Claire is a clone of Dr. Jekyll's housemaid was created to trigger Tom's transformation into Hyde. Tom, on the other hand, is not a clone of Dr. Jekyll, but a descendant of an illegitimate child of Hyde, originated on one of his night adventures. Tom is the first perfect genetic replication from Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
Hyde dies trying to protect Tom's children. Hyde decided not to share his injuries with Tom after he was shot. Tom survived. Jackman's sons also seem to have some of the "Jekyll & Hyde" genes. In the finale, Tom finds out that he does not have the "Jekyll & Hyde" gene from his father, as assumed, but from his mother - Mrs. Utterson. |
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reception
- Holger Kreitling praises the television series in the newspaper Die Welt as a "fine transformation of Stevenson's Schauer classic from 1886 into the present."
Web links
- Jekyll in the Internet Movie Database (English)