WRITER: Steven Moffat DIRECTOR: Matt Lipsey
CAST: James Nesbitt (Dr Tom Jackman/Mr Hyde/Dr Henry Jekyll/Original Hyde), Gina Bellman (Claire Jackman), Denis Lawson (Peter Syme), Mark Gatiss (Robert Louis Stevenson), Meera Syal (Miranda Callender), Michelle Ryan (Katherine Reimer), Christopher Day (Harry Jackman), Andrew Byrne (Eddie Jackman), Fenella Woolgar (Min), Matt King (Freeman) & Linda Marlowe (Ms Utterson)
Claire waits to see which "side" of her husband survived the Institute's "cure", as flashbacks deepen the mystery in Victorian England...The penultemate episode finds writer Steven Moffat firing on all cylinders, cutting loose now his premise is firmly established with moments of visual brilliance and intriguing flashbacks.
The Institute have seemingly cured Dr Jackman's "split-personality", but unfortunately Jackman has been completely dissolved by Hyde, who now reigns as the sole occupant of their body.
As wife Claire (Gina Bellman) refuses to accept her mild-mannered husband is lost forever, Hyde begins to experience lucid memories of Jackman's personal history... and that of Dr Henry Jekyll from 1886...
Just when you think Jekyll is finally going to settle down into predictability, the script effortlessly pulls the rug out from under you. The "memory download" Hyde experiences (brilliantly directed by Matt Lipsey), has Hyde walking through memories, pausing and rewinding them like a film on DVD. These are great sequences, particularly interesting for theorists because Hyde has access to memories belonging to Dr Jekyll -- who died in the 19th-century! How is this possible?
Episode 5 also has James Nesbitt giving his best performance yet, adding two more characters to his repertoire: the Victorian Jekyll and Hyde. Nesbitt is great to watch, despite the fact he often slips into a brash vaudevillian style for Hyde. Still, hamminess is forgivable in this context and Hyde remains gleeful fun and the infectious performance ratchets up the pace.
Unfortunately, characters like Miranda, Min and Katherine (Meera Syal, Fenella Woolgar and Michelle Ryan, respectively) are just playing second fiddle to Nesbitt and Gina Bellman these days. Their roles haven't progressed since Episode 3 and they're consequently superfluous now.
Thankfully, the story is engaging, delicious and crazy, in equal measure. Moffat sprinkles jokes and one-liners into the script at every opportunity, but never enough to upstage the story's quirky thriller mentality. Jekyll is having great fun with its premise, using humour to draw you in, but never totally forgetting its pulp horror roots. The show will never scare you, but it can unsettle occassionally.
A highlight here is a flashback to 1886, where we meet author Robert Louis Stevenson (played by the League Of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, a noted fan of Victorian horror) and the original Dr Henry Jekyll (played by James Nesbitt, with big side-burns). Here, the two friends discuss the circumstances behind Jekyll's genuine transformation into the savage Mr Hyde, in beautifully staged period scenes of crackling fireplaces and foggy streets.
Their chat prompts the show's latest twist (concerning the reason behind Jekyll's transformation) and sends Episode 5 flying off in a fresh direction. I don't fully understand how this new piece of information can plausibly fit into things, but I'm sure Steven Moffat has a good explanation.
We'll find out next week, when Jekyll concludes.
