Neverwhere
| Neverwhere | |
|---|---|
Neverwhere DVD cover
|
|
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Created by |
Neil Gaiman Lenny Henry |
| Starring |
Gary Bakewell Laura Fraser Hywel Bennett Clive Russell Paterson Joseph Trevor Peacock Elizabeth Marmur Tanya Moodie Peter Capaldi Earl Cameron |
| Composer(s) | Brian Eno |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | Video |
| Original release | 12 September – 17 October 1996 |
Neverwhere is an urban fantasy television series by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996 on BBC Two. The series is set in "London Below", a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as "London Above". It was devised by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry, and directed by Dewi Humphreys. Gaiman adapted the series from his novel, which was released in September 1996. The series and book were partially inspired by Gene Wolfe's novel Free Live Free.
Richard Mayhew, a Scot living in London, encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night. Despite his fiancée's protests he decides to help her; upon doing so he ceases to exist on Earth and becomes real only to the denizens of 'London Below', whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of 'London Above'. He loses his house, his job and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find a way back, and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins.
In London Below the various familiar names of London all take on a new significance: for example Knightsbridge becomes "Night's Bridge", a stone bridge whose darkness takes its toll in human life; The Angel, Islington is an actual angel. London Below is a parallel world in and beneath the sewers. Its inhabitants are the homeless, but also people from other times, such as Roman legionaries and medieval monks, as well as fictional and fantastical characters.
Neverwhere was first broadcast on BBC Two from 12 September 1996. There are six half-hour episodes:
The idea for the story came from a conversation between Gaiman and Henry about a possible television series. Henry suggested a story with tribes of homeless people in London. Gaiman was initially reluctant to commit, as he feared that making the homeless appear "cool" might cause more young people to attempt to emulate the characters, but decided that the effect could be avoided by making the story more removed from reality.
Neverwhere received some criticism for its appearance. One major problem lay in the original plan to shoot on video (for budgetary reasons), and then later "filmise" the footage to make it look as if it had been shot on film. For this reason, the programme had been lit and shot in a manner appropriate to a film-based production. However, the decision to apply the filmisation process was later reversed. In addition to what some considered the old-fashioned appearance of un-filmised video, the lighting set up with film in mind appeared garish and unsubtle on the more clinical medium. Gaiman himself commented that the loss of quality resulting from multi-generational VHS copies actually improved the appearance in this respect.
...
Wikipedia