Jekyll is a British television drama series written by Steven Moffat and produced by Hartswood Films and Stagescreen Productions and starring James Nesbitt as Tom Jackman, a modern-day descendant of Dr. Jekyll, who has recently begun transforming into a version of Mr. Hyde (also played by Nesbitt).
He uses modern technology in an attempt to keep Hyde in check and the two for a while have a peaceful co-existence until it is revealed that they are the key to a secret-organisation's one-hundred year old plot.
The series is described by its creators as a sequel to the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, rather than an adaptation of it, and the Robert Louis Stevenson tale is used within the series as a backstory.
The series originally aired in the UK on BBC One from 16 June to 28 July, 2007. There are six hour-long episodes in the series.
Jekyll premiered in South Africa on DStv's BBC Entertainment channel on Tuesday 2 September 2008, at 20h30.
Repeats
Tuesdays: 23h55
Saturdays: 22h00
Sundays: 02h00
Synopsis
It's 2007 and there's a new Dr Jekyll, with an old problem - Mr Hyde. But they have a deal - a body share – and an impossible life is somehow lived.
James Nesbitt takes the much-coveted lead role in this six-part thriller alongside Denis Lawson, Gina Bellman, Michelle Ryan and Meera Syal.
What Hyde doesn't know: Jekyll is married. There's a wife and two children he'll do anything to protect from his dark side. With all the resources of modern technology, and the best surveillance hardware, he's determined to keep his dark side in line. He's done a deal with his own devil.
What neither of them knows: an ancient organisation, with limitless wealth and power, is monitoring their every move, and a plan over a century in the making is coming to fruition.
The return of Dr Jekyll is no accident.
Writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) has taken a modern twist on the classic tale of scientific misadventure, which he describes as "somewhere between a modern horror story and The Odd Couple."
Gina Bellman plays Mrs Jackman, whose idyllic existence with her two small sons and doting husband is shattered by an ancient family curse: you think your husband's having a mid-life crisis - try being Mrs Jekyll & Hyde.
Denis Lawson plays Tom Jackman's oldest friend Peter Syme, who's just a little worried that Tom now seems to be sharing a flat with a younger sexier man with a taste for the night life.
Michelle Ryan is Tom's enigmatic and dedicated assistant, psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer, the only person other than Dr. Jackman who knows about the secret double life and has the job of helping him lead it: the servant of two masters but only one man.
Meera Syal is Miranda, the private detective who stumbles not only on the truth about Dr. Jackman and his alter ego, but on a conspiracy over a century old: she must convince Tom that there more frightening things in this modern world than Mr. Hyde...
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