Rare sightings: “Ultraviolet”

Vampires, government conspiracies, and Idris Elba. In that order. It really happened. Where else? On the BBC. 11 years ago, a really interesting idea came across screens with a cast that would go on to do great things.

The main characters, and the actors who portray them, are:

Mike Colefield (Jack Davenport) – A graduate police officer of ten years’ standing, he is best man at the wedding of his best friends Jack and Kirsty. However, when the groom disappears and two officers suddenly turn up from CIB2, Mike gets drawn into a world he never knew existed and can barely cope with.

Jack Berrisford (Stephen Moyer) – A police officer of ten years, soon to be married, and friend of Mike’s. There are murky and hidden things in his past…

Kirsty (Colette Brown) – A primary school teacher who has known Mike and Jack since university, she is also Jack’s fiancée. When Jack disappears she tries to find out what happened, thinking it would make things better, but it ends up making things a lot worse.

Frances (Fiona Dolman) – An old friend of Mike’s and also an ex-girlfriend, she works in a moderately security-sensitive area. When Mike asks for help, she uses her contacts to find out what she can. But she ends up watching as Mike gets sucked into a world he seems ill equipped for, but of which she knows nothing.

Angie March (Susannah Harker) – A medical research doctor up until six years ago, when her husband Robert and one of her twin daughters died. No-one really knows what she does now, but she turns up with Vaughan Rice claiming to be from CIB.

Vaughan Rice (Idris Elba) – An ex-serviceman, retired after the Gulf War due to post-traumatic stress after his squad was wiped out in a friendly fire incident. He turns up with Angie March at Jack’s abortive wedding claiming to be from CIB.

Pearse Harman (Philip Quast) – A priest, but also the head of a government-funded secret organisation dedicated to tracking down and neutralising their old enemy – the ‘leeches’. No specific name for this organisation exists, and they claim to be anything from anti-terrorist officers to CIB.

“Ultraviolet” is a cult hit, and is available on DVD. It’s an extremely silly story and premise, and the acting is WAY over the top pretty much all the time, but if you need a vampire story fix, you can do worse than to watch a show with Idris Elba in it.