Edge of Darkness (TV series)



"Emma Craven: Millions of years ago when the Earth was cold, it looked like life on the planet would cease to exist. But black flowers began to grow, multiplying across the landscape until the entire surface was covered in blooms. Slowly, the blackness of the flowers sucked in the heat of the sun and life began to evolve again. That is the power of Gaia. The planet will protect itself. If man is the enemy, it will destroy him."

A classic - perhaps the classic - British Conspiracy Thriller. Troy Kennedy Martin -- of Z Cars and The Italian Job fame -- wrote the screenplay as a cry of anguish against the contemporary political situation, and was rather startled when The BBC decided to produce and broadcast it.

On original broadcast, it proved so popular that, immediately after it finished its run on BBC Two, it was repeated on BBC One, a unique occurrence in the history of British Television. It was praised, and awarded, for its acting, scripting, and direction, and launched the career of Martin Campbell, who would later go on to direct GoldenEye for the James Bond franchise - and who cast Joe Don Baker as a cheery CIA agent in that movie in direct reference to his role in this series. Oh, and Eric Clapton collaborated with Michael Kamen to write the show's distinctive, haunting score.

Ronald "Ronnie" Craven is a Detective Inspector in the Police Force; he was decorated for bravery in the line of duty during his time in Northern Ireland. His wife died of cancer, roughly a decade ago, since when he has brought his daughter Emma up single handed. As the story opens, she has grown up to be a politically radical student, who seems to be the only remaining person on the face of the planet who can make him smile. Ronnie drives her home from a political meeting -- trying to keep her out of the rain, which has become absurdly and suspiciously heavy -- whereupon she is shot dead by a balaclava-clad thug wielding a sawn-off shotgun. Later, a grieving Ronnie is going through Emma's belongings; he finds a loaded gun, a geiger counter, her vibrator, and her old teddy-bear.

The police investigate briefly, but rapidly abandon their investigations, leaving Craven to use his contacts, wits, and determination to unravel the mystery. Or, at least, to attempt to do so.

Craven encounters, on his travels, the bullish, beaming CIA agent Darius Jedburgh, two extremely affable men who might - or might not - work for British Intelligence, a host of other twilight figures who might be good or bad or both or neither, and - frequently - Emma herself. Emma's post-mortem appearances are not explained; she could be symbolic of his obsession, a useful stalking horse to let the writers exteriorise Craven's inner dialogue, an on-screen symptom of Craven's mental breakdown, or an actual ghost. The series doesn't ever commit to any of those, although there are elements of mysticism in the rest of the story that mean that even the ghostly explanation - ordinarily unlikely in the context of a deathly serious modern thriller - cannot be dismissed out of hand. Indeed, as written, the original ending featured Craven turning into a tree. Thankfully, the production team were willing to tell even Troy Kennedy Martin to think again.

This series was given a Hollywood film adaptation in 2010, also titled Edge of Darkness.

Some of the following tropes may have been identified wandering the rain-swept hills above the Northmoor facility:
""Black coffee and whisky." "We know you're Texan, Jedburgh, you don't need to remind us.""
 * Action Girl -- Clementine has her moments.
 * Artifact of Doom -- Jedburgh describes plutonium in damn near these terms
 * Big No, Heroic BSOD, arguably The Woobie -- Ronnie Craven.
 * Eagle Land -- Flavor 2 heavily leaned on - Jedburgh returns to London from a mission in El Salvador, dressed in camo gear, with the aforementioned golf bag. "I had to leave a man behind". He also refers to the UK as "The Third World" and that Grogan is "stirring up the natives".
 * The Eighties -- And how!
 * Fun with Acronyms -- Though never mentioned in the series, this troper is convinced that the evil corporation Fusion Corporation of Kansas has an acronym.
 * Gaia's Vengeance -- the "proper" variety. Possibly.
 * Hey, It's That Guy! -- Ronnie Craven (played by Bob Peck) aka Muldoon. Other characters are played by actors who you may recognise from Dune, Sharpe, Gormenghast and Blakes Seven.
 * Joe Don Baker of James Bond fame turns up too.
 * Knight Templar: According to the writer, Jerry Grogan was intended to represent the original Knights Templar.
 * The Movie -- set in Boston, starring Mel Gibson as Tommy Craven. Still has a lot of British actors, though. One critic even pointed out that "the name Northmoor makes more sense in the original".
 * New Era Speech -- we get one from a disreputable character.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: To some extent, Jedburgh: by playing the part of the loud redneck Texan to the hilt, he conceals the fact that he is a highly determined, ruthless yet utterly moral and decent operator. At one point, he orders breakfast:


 * Storming the Castle -- Craven and Jedburgh infiltrate the mine/storage facility ... and stop half way to enjoy a three course dinner with fine wine, cigars and classical music.
 * Jedburgh also manages a one-man infiltration of a high-security conference - unleashing sheer chaos with nothing more than  and a screw-the-lot-of-you attitude, inspired by.
 * Shout-Out: A newspaper article is credited to a 'T K Martin"
 * Suspiciously Apropos Music -- is there any incidental music in this series which doesn't hint of a looming apocalypse?
 * Take That -- the Strategic Defense Initiative - or something that sounds rather like it - gets a fairly thorough rhetorical blast (well, flash, actually) from Jedburgh.
 * Those Two Guys -- Harcourt and Pendleton.
 * You Fail Physics Forever -- Averted hard. An expert came on board to ensure that all the science depicted was accurate; initially, he didn't want to do it because he was convinced this trope would come into effect and embarrass him, but the production team managed to convince him that they wouldn't mess it up. They didn't.