Afterlife television: Encyclopedia - Afterlife television

Afterlife (television)

Afterlife is a British television drama series, produced by independent producion company Clerkenwell Films for the ITV1 network. First broadcast in 2005, the series follows the activities of a psychic medium who appears to have the ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

Afterlife television - Overview

The main characters of the series are the psychic, Alison Mundy (played by Lesley Sharp) and the academic who becomes involved with her due to his sceptical interest in the paranormal, Dr Robert Bridge (Andrew Lincoln). Set in Bristol, each of the six one-hour episodes of the series sees Alison become involved in the appearance of a spirit and attempting to discover why it has come back to haunt the living. Robert becomes involved in the first episode, when Alison first moves to Bristol and her activities inadvertently result in the suicide of one of his students.

Following this, Robert decided to study Alison for a book. Alison's interest in Robert stems from her ability to see the spirit of his young son, who Robert cannot see. Throuhgout the series a recurring theme is Alison's attempt to have Robert fully come to terms with the death of his son so that the boy's spirit can be eased and he can fully move on. Alison's powers came to her after she was seriously injured in a train crash several years before, the other survivors of which seek her out to contact their own lost loved ones in the final episode of the first series, almost causing Alison's own death.

The programme was created by experienced television scriptwriter Stephen Volk, much of whose previous work had involved the paranormal, most famously the 1992 Screen One play Ghostwatch for BBC One. Volk also wrote five of the six episodes of the first series, the exception being the fifth episode which was scripted by Charlie Fletcher. The producer was Murray Ferguson, and the directors were Maurice Phillips (episodes 1 & 2), Charles Beeson (episodes 3 & 6) and Martyn Friend (episodes 4 & 5).

Volk had originally conceived the series during the mid-1990s according to SFX magazine, when "ITV was fleetingly interested in producing a homegrown supernatural series because of The X-Files' success [in the UK]."^[1] The series remained unmade until Clerkenwell Films became interested, as did Lesley Sharp, the actress being very keen to star in the series. "She absolutely loved it and actually pestered ITV relentlessly, asking 'When are you gonna commission this series?' Eventually they did,"^[2] Volk told SFX.

Following the success of the first series, a second run was commissioned, due for broadcast in the autumn of 2006.^[3]

Afterlife television - Critical reaction

Previewing the first episode as one of "Today's Choices" for its day of transmission in the Radio Times listings magazine, television critic Alison Graham praised Afterlife as "[A] highly-promising mystery series... a taut and snappy spine-tingler, even if it does use some old-hat shocked techniques such as creaking floorboards, darkness, inexplicable noises and unexpected taps on the shoulder."^[4] Reviewing the same episode for The Guardian newspaper two days after its broadcast, critic Rupert Smith was also impressed: "What looked like being a deeply depressing hour was instantly enlivened by the appearance of Lesley Sharp, who has become in recent years television's favourite Everywoman... At last I can put my hand on my heart and give an unqualified cheer to a new primetime British drama series. Afterlife was scary without being over-gruesome, it kept a straight face while gleefully narrating a plot of pure old-fashioned hokum, and it starred actors who are constantly, entirely watchable... Afterlife took the best bits of The X-Files, Jonathan Creek and, yes, Most Haunted, and turned them into terrific television."^[5]

The response remained positive through to the end of the series, with all subsequent episodes also being included in "Today's Choices" in the Radio Times. Previewing the sixth episode, Alison Graham was again positive, describing the series as a whole as having been "[A] consistently high-quality supernatural drama."^[6]

Afterlife was also a success for ITV1 in terms of viewing figures. The first episode garnered an overnight average rating of 5.7 million, 25% of the total television audience for the time, winning its timeslot with nearly two million more viewers than the nearest competition on at the same time.^[7] The second episode improved to 6.2 million viewers, 29% of the available audience and again two million higher than its nearest competition on BBC One.^[8] Episode three garnered 5.4 million and a 25% share, which was identical to that gained by the BBC One competition (an edition of the semi-regular Test the Nation interactive quiz series).^[9] Viewing figures remained strong through to the final episode of the first series, which concluded the run by again winning its slot by two million viewers, with 5.8 million and a 28% audience share.^[10]

Afterlife television - Episode list

Series One:

Note — although the airdates below refer to the UK broadcasts on the ITV1 network, the series actually had its world premiere on Australia's Nine Network several weeks before the UK showings, on Tuesday nights at 9.30pm from August 16 2005.

1. More than Meets the Eye. Saturday September 24 2005, 9.10-10.10pm.
2. Lower than Bones. Saturday October 1 2005, 9.10-10.10pm.
3. Daniel One and Two. Saturday October 8 2005, 9.10-10.10pm.
4. Misdirection. Saturday October 15 2005, 9.05-10.05pm.
5. Sleeping with the Dead. Saturday October 22 205, 9.35-10.35pm.
6. The 7:59 Club. Saturday October 29 2005, 9.30-10.30pm.

Afterlife television - Overseas sales

In addition to broadcasts in Australia and the United Kingdom, the series has also been seen in Canada on the BBC Canada cable television network.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Afterlife television", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki