Edge of Darkness

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Film Description

One of those moments in television drama that grips an entire nation, this is a wonderful, dark and humanistic drama of father/daughter relationships and terrifying conspiracies within the nuclear power industry. Peck is quite superb. Features a BAFTA winning score from Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen.

Film Information

DVD Extras

2 discs; Interviews from BBC & BAFTAs 1986; BBC Arts Programme Review; Magnox - The Secrets of Edge of Darkness;

Technical Details

Film Media

6 Stills

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Reviews & Articles

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Review by Oliver French on 4th January 2000

This TV series is, to my mind, one of the best ever made. Bob Peck is marvellous as the police inspector who has recently lost his daughter. As he tries to find out who the bullit was meant for, him or her, he founds out the truth about his daughter, about the web of collaboration and desinformation between the CIA and the British government, and the truth behind the treatment of nuclear hazardous waste in Britain. With the cold war of the 80s, and the subsequent fear of an imminent nuclear winter as a backdrop, the feelings you derive from this series are ones of desperation and intimate warmth and hope, all at once. Other memorable performances come from Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and of course Joe Don Baker in his best performance ever.

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Review by Tom Pointon on 20th December 2005

Television drama doesn't get better than this. End of story.

Bob Peck is superb as a policeman who, having lost his wife to cancer, witnessing his daughter gunned down, gradually closes himself off. His performance is a masterstroke. Emotion barely displayed through minor registers of facial expression such as in a scene early on, when he makes some shocking discoveries in his daughter's bedroom. His subsequent investigations uncover a chilling web of lies, conspiracies and corruption, plumbing the depths of the nuclear state.

There's a real noir sensibility to this. In the themes - a solitary figure with limited knowledge caught up in circumstances over which he has no control. Also iconography - the rain at night which opens the first episode, the trenchcoats worn by the characters. The flashbacks, when he has imaginary converstaions with his daughter who reappears as a little girl, are another noir-esque aspect. They conceptualise the narrative while serving as emotional device for the viewer. The influence of cop shows from the seventies is also in evidence such as the busy incident room, the hard drinking and cigarettes.

Production values and a cinematic attitude accelerate this light years away from other mid eighties dramas such as WIDOWS. The genius of the team who produced EDGE OF DARKNESS is evidenced by their virtuosity in combining these elements into something which is so clearly of its time and yet able to speak beyond its time.

Give yourself a weekend to watch this. You're in for a treat.

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Article - "Processing the Dark: Heavy Water – A Film for Chernobyl" by Graeme Hobbs
Friday 27th July 2007

‘We have to start from Saturday 26, April 1986, 1.23 in the morning. The reactor roof was blown right off, more than fifty tonnes of nuclear fuel it was thrown into the air, the smoke it was three miles up; the territory became very contaminated, very polluted...' View article in full

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