| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Edge of Darkness was written by the highly-experienced Troy Kennedy Martin, previously responsible for creating the famous and long-running BBC police drama Z-Cars and for writing the screenplays for feature films such as The Italian Job and Kelly's Heroes. Kennedy Martin originally wrote the script - then titled Magnox - in 1978Events January January 1 The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. January 1 Air India's Boeing 747 explodes near Bombay 213 dead. January 4 Referendum in Chile supports policies of Augusto Pinochet., but it was not until 1982Events January January 6 William Bonin is convicted of being the "freeway killer". January 8 AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara du that it took the interest of the BBC's then Head of Drama Series & Serials, Jonathan PowellJonathan Powell (born 1947) is a British television producer and executive. After graduating from the University of East Anglia in 1968, he began working in television drama, producing programmes such as Crown Court''. He produced several drama series dur, who assigned producer Michael WearingMichael Wearing is a British television producer, who has spent much of his career working on various drama productions for the BBC. He is best known as the producer of the highly-acclaimed serials Boys from the Blackstuff ( 1982) and Edge of Darkness ( 1 to the project.
Wearing brought on board director Martin CampbellMartin Campbell is a New Zealand film and television director. His work for the cinema includes Vertical Limit ( 2000), The Mask of Zorro ( 1998) and the James Bond film GoldenEye ( 1995). On television, his best known work is the 1985 BBC Television dram, whose disagreements with Kennedy Martin over the scripts would lead to much creative tension during the course of production. The shooting of the six episodes took twenty weeks, and the production had a generous budget of £4 million, a quarter of which was contributed by the American television distribution company Lionheart, who handled the BBC's US sales. Their only stipulation was that the American character Jedburgh be introduced in the first episode, as he originally only arrived in the second.
The finished serial was screened on BBC Two on Monday nights at 9.30pm from November 4November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 57 days remaining. Events 1576 Eighty Years' War: In Belgium, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city was nearly destroyed). 1612 Moscow China Town tak to December 9 1985. Such was the positive public and critical acclaim heaped upon the series upon transmission that very early in the New Year it was repeated on the higher-profile BBC One, a very rare occurrence and especially so soon after its original broadcast.
At the 1986 BAFTA Awards, Edge of Darkness won the Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor (for Bob Peck as the leading character, Ronald Craven ) and Best Original TV Music categories. It was quickly made available on VHS, and has twice been released on DVD: in 1999 in a three-part compilation form, and in 2003 in an unedited, digitally remastered episodic format with various bonus features. In a 2000 poll of industry professionals to find the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes conducted by the British Film Institute, Edge of Darkness was voted into 15th place. It was also included in an alphabetical list of the Forty Greatest TV Shows published in Radio Times magazine in August 2003.
In 2002, it was reported by Variety that Martin Campbell was planning a feature film version of the serial, with the action being switched to the USA.