This three-part series appears to be the first produced screen effort from a Lancashire fellow named Dominic Mitchell.
Press release:
BBC AMERICA’S IN THE FLESH THREE-NIGHT ZOMBIE MINI-SERIES EVENT BEGINS THURSDAY, JUNE 6For the undead…life begins again.
“I don’t feel ready. But that’s why they say I am ready…because I’m feeling.”
– Zombie Teenager Kieren Walker, PDS (Partially Deceased Syndrome) SuffererBBC AMERICA’s co-production, In The Flesh, tells a very human story…about the undead. The mini-series springs to life with the channel’s special broadcast event, premiering over three consecutive nights. Zombie teenager Kieren Walker isn’t comfortable in his ‘undead’ state. He didn’t want to come back - he wanted to be dead. After his suicide four years ago, his friends and family thought they’d never see him again. But then, shortly after his funeral, thousands rose from the dead. After months of re-habilitation and medication, the zombies, now known as PDS (Partially Deceased Syndrome) sufferers, are gradually being returned to their homes. When Kieran returns, he is forced to confront his family, the community that rejected him and the haunting flashbacks of what he did in his untreated state. BBC AMERICA’s special three-night premiere event of In The Flesh begins Thursday, June 6, 10:00pm ET/PT.
In The Flesh explores a post-zombie-uprising - from the zombie’s perspective. The series follows 18-year-old Kieren Walker (Luke Newberry, Anna Karenina, Quartet), a PDS sufferer who, now treated with the medication Neurolax, is deemed ready to return to his parents’ home in the small village of Roarton. Since the passing of the PDS Protection act, the government has set an agenda of acceptance and tolerance, one that is at odds with the communities abandoned at the time of The Rising, and the bloody battle between zombies and humans that ensued. A cauldron of brutal anti-zombie sentiment boils in Roarton, the home of the ‘rotter’ hating Human Volunteer Force (HVF). Can Kieren’s neighbors forgive him for what he did in his untreated state? More importantly can Kieren forgive himself?
In The Flesh takes a fresh approach to the zombie genre, using it to tell a story that tackles real family and domestic issues. It’s about feeling ‘other,’ exploring how chaos is born and the destructive effects it can have on both the individual and the community.
Creator and writer, Dominic Mitchell, on the series: “What’s great about using the zombie genre was I could talk about all those issues, talk about feeling ‘other’ and feeling different and feeling like you can’t come out to your parents…but under the guise of ‘I’m a zombie and my parents don’t recognize me as a zombie’.”
Emily Bevan (The Thick of It), Steve Evets (Shameless), Kenneth Cranham (Upstairs Downstairs), Ricky Tomlinson (The Royle Family), David Walmsley (Doctors), and Harriet Cains (Human Beings) also star in this thought-provoking series about redemption, forgiveness and the battle against prejudice. The three-part series, created and written by Dominic Mitchell, is directed by Jonny Campbell, with Ann Harrison-Baxter serving as producer and Hilary Martin as executive producer.
