Director – Diarmud Lawrence, Screenplay – Lizzie Mickery & Boris Starling, Based on the Novel Messiah (1999) by Boris Starling, Producer – Louise Berridge, Photography – David Odd & Kevin Rowley, Music – Michel Colombier, Prosthetics Supervisor – Geoff Portass, Production Design – Claire Kenny. Production Company – BBC Northern Ireland/Paramount International Television/Messiah Films.
Cast
Ken Stott (DCI Red Metcalfe), Frances Grey (DI Kate Beauchamp), Jamie Draven (DI Jez Clifton), Neil Dudgeon (DI Duncan Warren), Kieran O’Brien (Eric Metcalfe), Edward Woodward (Reverend Stephen Hedges), Michelle Forbes (Susan Metcalfe), Ron Berglas (Lubezski), Art Malik (DCS Emerson), Raymond Trickitt (DC Nixon), Gillian Taylforth (Helen Warren), Colin Gourley (Roger Parkin), Serena Gordon (Alison Reeves), Eddie Cooper (Sam Warren), Hosh Ibrahim (Kevan Latimer), Deborah Findlay (Clarissa Buchanan)
Plot
London, 2000. Detective Chief Inspector Red Metcalfe of Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate three murders where the victims are found with their tongues severed and silver spoons paced in their mouth. Metcalfe and his team initially think that the victims are connected because they are gay, but a fourth murder disproves this theory. Metcalfe then finds the connection – that all the victims have the same names and professions of the Biblical apostles and are being killed on each saint’s day. Fighting a leak within his own department, a hostile tabloid press and clues that bring the case uncomfortably close to home, Metcalfe tries to find the killer before the next victim is murdered.
The huge success of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) created the Serial Killer Thriller where police forces traced serial killers and the story placed a focus on forensics and determining the psychological patterns of the killer’s motivation. The Silence of the Lambs was such a success it produced a number of copycats for several years after. Messiah was one such copy made by the BBC (in collaboration with US tv) as a TV Mini-Series in two episodes intended to fill two-hour slots.
The mini-series is based on Messiah (1999), a novel by British writer Boris Starling. The script is adapted by former actress Lizzie Mickery who gained attention with her adaptations of crime novels for mini-series such as The Ice House (1997) and The Beggar Bride (1997), as well as created the SF tv series Paradox (2009-10). After the success of Messiah and sequels, Mickery went to the US and worked on series such as Rogue (2013-7), The Following (2013-5), Proof (2015), Bloodline (2015-7) and Snowpiercer (2020-5).
One of the most successful films to come out inspired by The Silence of the Lambs was David Fincher’s Se7en (19955) and its tying its serial killer to religious themes, with Kevin Spacey’s killer acting on the motif of the Seven Deadly Sins. The idea of religiously-themed serial killer was appropriated by other serial killer thrillers such as Resurrection (1999) and Thr3e (2006). Messiah is one of the most direct borrowings from Se7en where the serial killer is killing people who have the same names and professions as the apostles and each victim is given a death according to the fate of the corresponding apostle.
The investigating detectives – (l to r) Frances Grey, Ken Stott, Jamie Draven and Neil Dudgeon
Messiah is a little quieter than The Silence of the Lambs and most of its copies. There is not quite as much focus on the minutiae of forensic psychology. You suspect if Messiah had been made as a feature film much of this would have been tightened. There is quite a few B plots running through the film – the relationship between lead detective Ken Stott and his deaf wife Michelle Forbes; the troubled relationship Stott has with brother Kieran O’Brien after being forced to arrest him; supporting detective Neil Dudgeon’s problems with gambling and child support payments. In all likelihood, a film version would have trimmed much of this, in particular the scenes with an obnoxious tabloid reporter, which is not an issue as big in the US in the ways that it is in the UK.
The plot sets up a classic whodunit among the suspects. Who the leak in the police department is ends up being a fairly obvious choice. And my prediction as to who would end up being the film’s Judas ended up being correct. On the other hand, while the mini-series sets up a couple of likely suspects, the one it eventually goes with is a left-field twist that you never saw coming. It feels somewhat contrived as there is no foreshadowing of this individual. That said, the explanation offered for their motivation and attachment to the apostles is a positively ingenious one when explained.
There were four mini-series sequels with Messiah 2: Vengeance is Mine (2002-3), Messiah: The Promise (2004), Messiah: The Harrowing (2005) and Messiah: The Rapture (2008). Ken Stott and Neil Dudgeon appear in all but the last, while Michelle Forbes and Frances Grey appear in the first two. Lizzie Mickery writes the first two of these. This mini-series is not related and should not be confused with the later US tv series Messiah (2020).
