Jekyll (Series 1) DVD, 2007

There are two ‘high concepts’ in play here: the extrapolation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s split-personality novella into the modern era, and the casting of Irish heartthrob James Nesbitt as the eponymous victim of a vicious doppelganger – one, moreover, who looks not too physically different in his 'Hyde’ persona (beyond black contact lenses). In fact, the notion of Jekyll and Hyde in the present day is treated to every possible variation here, with much interpolation of ideas that aren't to be found in Stevenson – such as sinister organisations manipulating lives, and Nesbitt leaving messages for his alter ego by tape recorder. The casting of Nesbitt is the selling point here: while his Jackman/Jekyll is dour and low-key, his Hyde is more akin to the Jack Nicholson’s Joker than anything else, with verbally playful black humour and psychosis (Barrault's capering, twitching comic monster in Renoir’s Testament du Docteur Cordelier also lurks here). Some may find the horror underplayed (scenes of potential violence are usually cut away from – then subsequently found not to have happened at all), but Nesbitt is fine value for money.

Barry Forshaw on 12th July 2007
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