The Living and the Dead

2016

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
7.3| TV-14| en| More Info
Released: 28 June 2016 Ended
Producted By: BBC Wales
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wv2rl
Info

Somerset 1894. When a pioneering Victorian psychologist brings his vivacious young wife to live on his family's estate, he is confronted by one disturbing case after another. Are these strange events linked merely by coincidence, or is there something more sinister - more supernatural - going on at Shepzoy?

Genre

Drama

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Director

Production Companies

BBC Wales

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The Living and the Dead Audience Reviews

Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Acensbart Excellent but underrated film
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
ladybug2535 Loved it! They certainly could have easily had a season 2, I'm very disappointed that it's been cancelled. I really liked the unique take on the usual ghost story and the idea that there are places in which the veil is thin between the living and the dead and where time seems to play tricks. Good story, great acting and lovely setting, this show kept me engaged from start to finish. Very sorry not to see it coming back for part 2.While I don't want to throw out any spoilers, I will say that it seems as if a season 2 was planned, and that in anticipation of that unfulfilled promise the neatly wrapped up story line was done a disservice at the very end. You'll see what I mean. Even so, the tacked on secondary ending does nothing to detract from the rest of the season--just ignore it like a burp at the end of a good meal. That said, I do highly recommend the show, especially if you like Gothic mysteries.
facebookjayde I must first admit to thoroughly enjoying period pieces! That was just one element that drew me to this show. The second being Colin Morgan; I have enjoyed watching him grow as an actor since I first saw him in Merlin. I thought the music was perfect for this genre, if you can say "Period Horror" is a genre. I found parts that reminded me of "Supernatural", except nobody knew how to protect themselves from the goings on. I agree that there were many unanswered questions, but fans of this type of show accept that as part of the draw. Even at the end, there will always be something that makes you say "huh?", but because that is expected, it allows the viewer to insert his/her own conclusions. In the US, I feel like I'm being spoon fed the information, like I'm too stupid to figure anything out on my own. The constant need storytellers and directors have for flashbacks and blatant foreshadowing is patronizing. I love British television and movies because you never know how it might end. In Hollywood there seems to only be one kind of ending-happy. From the beautiful countryside, the great actors, the eerie music, and the compelling story with the lovely crossover events, I look forward to a second season of "The Living and the Dead".
vivnista I found the show incredibly disjointed. I was more than happy with the time periods which definitely held my interest but the story lines just did not fit together well. It was all a bit thin for my liking. I did find the acting brilliant and the soundtrack was appropriately eerie but it just wasn't enough. I didn't understand the ending at all, were they on about the first wife and if so how come nobody else had mentioned it?!!! The twist was good but again didn't make sense as in the present day there would be mention of this strange machine found back in the 1800s. All in all if you have nothing better to do then give it a go with low expectation and then you may enjoy it.
Leofwine_draca THE LIVING AND THE DEAD is a six-part BBC miniseries about ghostly goings on and the man who investigates them. The central characters are a farmer and his wife who arrive at a rural corner of historic England and soon discover that the countryside is awash with supernatural events and dangerous elements. From that premise I knew I had to watch it, but I soon discovered that this is the usual kind of generic BBC nonsense that proves the broadcaster has lost the plot these days when it comes to drama programming.Visually the series is very similar to POLDARK albeit with a WICKER MAN influenced folk song soundtrack full of pagan themes and feelings. Yeah, the music gets pretty intrusive at times, almost reaching PEAKY BLINDERS levels of interruption. Elsewhere, the usual clichés of the ghost story genre are explored, from the generic possession stuff to hints of witchcraft, curses, and the odd cheesy death scene (the bit with Steve Oram being run over is physically impossible). Cast-wise, the main actor is the kid from MERLIN all grown up, but the problem is he's very wooden and uninteresting - can't the BBC give new talent a chance? There are some good character actors in support including Nicholas Woodeson (ROME), David Oakes (PILLARS OF THE EARTH), and Kerrie Hayes (THE MILL), but they don't have a lot to do.THE LIVING AND THE DEAD might be well shot but many scenes are rather dark and dingy and there's even a woman in a negligee wandering around in the best Hammer tradition. At times it feels like nothing more than a mildly supernatural MIDSOMER MURDERS copy, but in the last couple of episodes things start to really lose the plot with some significant post-modernist developments seemingly copied from Hollywood fare like THE OTHERS or American HORROR STORY. And this is the problem with BBC drama in the 21st century: a team of writers with little to no experience in the horror genre, copying what's gone before instead of trying something new. The BBC needed to employ a single experienced writer like Stephen Volk in order to do this subject matter true justice.