Here’s an advance look at ITV’s ten-part “action adventure drama” adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Written by Charlie Higson and set in the 1930’s, Jekyll & Hyde will focus on the young, attractive, troubled hero, Robert Jekyll, the grandson of the original doctor.
ITV says the drama’s “heart” is Jekyll’s quest to discover his real identity, his true family history and the nature of his ‘curse’.
Higson’s Jekyll is a young, sensitive and naïve man of intellect and morality, a well meaning if slightly repressed character who slips between his two personas unwillingly.
Hyde is a totally different person; a superhero with super powers, great strength, speed and invulnerability. He is confident, risk-taking and lives life on the edge. His self-destructive nature gets him into trouble, and yet he is an incredibly powerful force.
In the opening episode Jekyll is a newly qualified doctor living with his foster parents in India. He knows nothing of his family history or his inherited condition, which his foster father, Dr Vishal Najaran, is controlling with medication.
The drama follows his path to discovery, which coincides with the transformative powers of his condition growing stronger and more disruptive. His journey will take him into a dark and unforgiving place, as his alter ego seems capable of anything. At the same time there are shadowy forces trying to find Jekyll and the source of his powers.
Jekyll & Hyde has been directed by Colin Teague (Being Human, The Town, Sinbad) and finished filming in London last month.
