The word is never used because this is the 1990s. No-one believes in vampires. Even the vampire hunters are not comfortable with the word.
This series invents a whole vampire mythos and it’s an interesting one. It’s a science fictional vampire mythos.
We find out quite a bit about the vampires in the first, Habeas Corpus, but you’ll get more out of this series if you find these things out gradually as Mike learns them.
Mike Colefield (Jack Davenport) is a cop. His buddy Jack is getting married. The night before the wedding Mike gets a phone call from Pollard, one of Jack’s informants. Pollard is unreliable at the best of times but he sounds genuine scared and Mike agrees to meet with him.
Pollard ends up dead. Mike pursues the killer but loses him. This is where it gets weird. The murder and the pursuit took place in an area where there are lots of security cameras. But the killer does not show up in any of the video footage.
Equally odd is that Pollard had in his possession photos which he believed were vital evidence but there’s nobody in the photos.
Vaughan Rice (Idris Elba) and Angela Marsh (Susannah Harker) take charge of the investigation. Nobody knows who they are but they are assumed to be CIB (Complaints Investigation Branch, the equivalent of Internal Affairs). Everybody is intimidated by them. They are rumoured to have a lot of clout. But they’re not CIB. So who are they?
And then Mike sees half a dozen heavily armed SWAT team type guys take out a suspect. Mike is on the scene but lying low. He does find one of the guns used by the SWAT guys. The ammunition is very strange.
Vaughan Rice and Angela Marsh are not cops and they’re not Special Branch or MI5. They’re concerned with more important things. They’re in a war that goes back centuries. It is not a normal war. Mike is recruited by the shadowy organisation for which they work. It has to remain the shadows. There are some things the public is better off not knowing. There are things Mike would have been happier not knowing.
This series looks like a grungy gritty British version of The X-Files and it was doubtless influenced to some extent by the way The X-Files took a familiar subject (an alien invasion of which we are unaware) and added a huge helping of classic 70s paranoia. Ultraviolet does something similar with vampires. There’s a lot of that style of paranoia.
And in Ultraviolet there’s a huge amount of medical paranoia. These vampires spend a lot of money on medical research. This was 1998 when AIDS was a big thing but Ultraviolet is not crude enough to use vampirism as a straightforward simplistic metaphor for AIDS. There is however an obsession with contagion.
What makes Ultraviolet really fascinating is that while superficially it is science fiction we can’t be sure that there’s isn’t something stranger going on, something possibly supernatural. If a scientific explanation is being offered for vampires then you don’t expect the vampires to be bothered by things like crucifixes or Bibles. These vampires are bothered by such things but we’re not sure exactly why this is.
The vampire hunters rely on science and technology but the battle they are fighting does have some a spiritual dimension of a sort. There is an acceptance of the existence of evil but also an acceptance that evil isn’t always clearcut.
The second episode, In Nomine Patris, deals with a banker. A philanthropic banker. If you can call it philanthropy.
And then Mike sees half a dozen heavily armed SWAT team type guys take out a suspect. Mike is on the scene but lying low. He does find one of the guns used by the SWAT guys. The ammunition is very strange.
Vaughan Rice and Angela Marsh are not cops and they’re not Special Branch or MI5. They’re concerned with more important things. They’re in a war that goes back centuries. It is not a normal war. Mike is recruited by the shadowy organisation for which they work. It has to remain the shadows. There are some things the public is better off not knowing. There are things Mike would have been happier not knowing.
This series looks like a grungy gritty British version of The X-Files and it was doubtless influenced to some extent by the way The X-Files took a familiar subject (an alien invasion of which we are unaware) and added a huge helping of classic 70s paranoia. Ultraviolet does something similar with vampires. There’s a lot of that style of paranoia.
What makes Ultraviolet really fascinating is that while superficially it is science fiction we can’t be sure that there’s isn’t something stranger going on, something possibly supernatural. If a scientific explanation is being offered for vampires then you don’t expect the vampires to be bothered by things like crucifixes or Bibles. These vampires are bothered by such things but we’re not sure exactly why this is.
The vampire hunters rely on science and technology but the battle they are fighting does have some a spiritual dimension of a sort. There is an acceptance of the existence of evil but also an acceptance that evil isn’t always clearcut.
The second episode, In Nomine Patris, deals with a banker. A philanthropic banker. If you can call it philanthropy.
The third episode, Sub Judice, involves a female lawyer and a pregnancy but is it in any sense a normal pregnancy?
Terra Incognita is another episode obsessed with the attempt to understand vampirism in medical terms and both humans and vampires are working towards this end, for their own very different purposes. Some emotional dramas are also coming to a head.
There are so many ways this series could have been messed and by the time we get to the final episode, Persona Non Grata, a number of elements have been introduced that seem to make it certain that the series will crash and burn at the end. Surprisingly this does not happen. The ending feels right and is totally satisfying.
All four key cast members are excellent.
The vampire hunter team (which seems to have government backing although the government would never admit to its existence) comprises four members and for the purposes of television drama they are perfectly balanced.
All four team members see vampire hunting very differently. Dr Angela Marsh mostly handles the medical and scientific side of things. She sees vampires as a scientific problem but it’s also an emotionally charged personal issue for her. The vampires killed her husband and one of her two children. She is constantly having to keep her intellectual and emotional sides in balance.
Mike Colefield is a cop and he was recruited because they need someone who understands investigate procedures and surveillance. For Mike it’s a matter of following established investigative methods.
And then there’s Pearse Harman (Philip Quast), a Catholic priest and the man in charge. He keeps the troops inspired and focused. For him this is a complicated spiritual and moral problem. I like the way the series resists the temptation to portray the Catholic Church as the bad guys.
All four team members also have personal stakes (if you’ll for give the pun) in the fight against vampires. That’s necessary because vampire hunting requires absolute dedication.
Ultraviolet now seems to be an all but forgotten series. Perhaps it was thought of as too unconventional although it’s no more unconventional than series like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer which were major hits at the time. Perhaps the lack of lighter comedic moments counted against it. Or perhaps it was too sufficiently action-oriented. It relies much more on suspense than action.
It’s visually impressive in a moody slightly noir-esque way.
Ultraviolet was one of the last truly interesting truly satisfying British television series and it deserves rediscovery. It’s spooky disturbing and provocative and it’s very highly recommended.
The old DVD release from Medium Rare is still in print and it’s quite inexpensive and it looks fine. This series really does need a Blu-Ray release.
