WATCHED - The Terror

 

In 1848 the Erubus and The Terror set out on an expedition to find the North West Passage, led by Sir John Fitzgerald an experienced explorer. Nothing was heard of the ships or their crew and subsequent rescue missions failed to find them. The frozen buried bodies of a few crew were found, they'd died from eating lead contaminated food. In recent years the wrecks of both ships have been located. Fragments of information pieced together form only the barest framework for what may have happened. But truth be told its a mystery that many never be fully explained.

The drama The Terror takes what is known, imaginatively fleshing out the story. It doesn't have to maintain complete fidelity to historical fact because that doesn't exist, so it relishes the inventions it creates to fill in the gaps. They concoct against the grim frightening situation the crew find themselves in, a wonderfully chilling horror fantasy. This plays out over ten episodes in a grotesque and frequently grissly manner, it spares us nothing. Be warned there is a lot of very graphic detail. 

The Terror, though it has all the lurid flourishes of a Victorian Gothic novel, does also give a palpably chilly dramatic sense of their predicament. Their isolation and unstable psychological state after years on ships in an increasing desperate situation in the midst of a hostile environment. It is utterly gripping. Sometimes not a lot happens in an episode, but the wound up tenseness is maintained, you are left fearing for them and holding your breath. Even though you know this does not turn out well, it won't let your attention waver. 

Life on the ships is a small microcosm of the larger British Empire, with all the issues of class, upbringing, status, rivalries and racism playing out in the pressure cooker of its confined space. The script also explores contemporary concerns when so called 'alternative narratives' based on fake or misleadingly presented information is used to split the unity of the remaining survivors. All the while the effect of being slowly poisoned by the lead in their tinned provisions is taking their health and grip on sanity.

The officers are flawed men, whose coping strategies all prove inadequate for what they are facing. Ciarin Hines as the Captain performs to the hilt his full range of acting tropes, including the tendency to chew scenery, here its not misplaced. It allows Jared Harris the space to dial down his performance. He does give a subtle and skillfully nuanced performance of this clearheaded man, whose opinions other officers belittle and fatally do not pay sufficient heed to. He's a heroic individual trying, and often failing, to keep one step ahead of being subsumed by his own demons.

All brilliant stuff, highly recommended.

All ten episodes currently available to view on BBC I Player