DVD
Messiah
Series 1 and 2

Starring: Ken Stott
BBC Worldwide
RRP: £19.99
BBCDVD1535
Certificate: 15
Available 06 September 2004


Two disturbing murders with no motive, so begins the most complex and sinister investigation of police detective Red Metcalf's career. With nothing to go on other than the killer's grisly calling card (replacing the victims' tongues with silver spoons) Red soon realises that he may well have met his match in this twisted serial killer. Soon the victims start to mount up. Bludgeoned, hanged, decapitated or skinned alive, his adversary has neither compassion nor a preferred method of killing for his prey. It seems the murders have no connection and no clear motive. No suspects. But as the pattern slowly begins to emerge, Red finds himself slipping from a difficult murder inquiry into his own worse nightmare...

The beauty of this first series is the unexpected twists and turns that the plot takes. Also the title Messiah makes sense for this series alone - it doesn't really have anything to do with the second series.

Ken Stott is perfect as the detective with a shady past. There are also some fantastic supporting roles here, including Edward Woodwood as Rev. Stephen Hedges, Art Malik, as Red's boss, and Michelle Forbes (Star Trek: Next Generation's Ro Laren) as Red's wife. What's interesting here is that Forbes plays a profoundly deaf woman - a role that requires an incredible amount of acting ability to come across as credible. And she does put in a fantastic performance.

The much hyped gore in this series has been a little over exaggerated - this is the BBC after all. But, the murder scenes are on screen for a very short time - allowing your mind to fill in the blanks.

The conclusion, if you ponder on it for any length of time, doesn't really add up. Without spoiling anything... once you've watched the DVD ask yourself how the killer manage to get the job they finished up with? The events that sets his/her bizarre killing spree in motion began years earlier. We find out what triggered him/her but how did they work their way up into the position they are in? I assume that the "accident" that set this chain of events in motion was only known to the killer and the person who turned them into the monster, so how could the killer have tracked down his/her creator?

But, don't dwell on that nit-pick, this is still a first rate and riveting series.


Red's estranged brother is found knifed in the hustle and bustle of Leadenhall Market with Red's wife as the only credible witness. But Red hardly has time to ponder his brother's murder, before a new spate of horrific murders start to come to light. First a man is found buried alive. Then the dead man's wife is found dead, trussed up in a laundry bag in the launderette where she works. There is no clear pattern to these murders and the following slayings include electrocution, above a railway line, strangulation in a playground and drowning. Gradually, Red starts to piece together a pattern and realises who the killer is trying to punish...

The second series of Messiah is an impressive enough follow up to the first series - although, this could well be the first time I have correctly worked out who the murderer was well before all the vital clues were in place.

The murders themselves are cleverly executed, and one in particular is quite moving - that of Mandy Macintyre (played by Emma Cambridge). While the previous deaths are of people the viewer is unfamiliar with, the writers cleverly introduce Mandy as young girl who is outgoing and has a lot of friends - which makes her death all that more sad. While she's not really featured that heavily she's written out just as you are starting to warm to her character.

The murders in this series appear more frightening than in the first series - maybe because there is something of everyone's worse nightmares in here. For me, it's the thought of being buried alive, but there are also drowning, electrocution and having vital organs removed while you are still alive.

This builds on the first series, but never quite manages to prove as visually or emotionally compelling.

This collection also includes a few extras. For series one there is a 'Making of' featurette and some very short deleted scenes. And, for series two there is a special effects footage featurette that talks to those responsible for creating the gory corpses.

At £20 this is fantastic value for money.

Darren Rea

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