Utopia (British TV series)


Utopia is a British conspiracy thriller television series that was originally broadcast on Channel 4. The show was written by Dennis Kelly and starred Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford, Alistair Petrie, and Neil Maskell. The show has since gained a cult following.
In October 2014, the series' official Twitter feed stated there would not be a third series. HBO had originally planned to make an American version of the show in 2014, but did not produce it due to budget disputes. Amazon then acquired the rights to the series as of April 2018, and an American version was released on 25 September 2020. Initially nearly inaccessible to the U.S. market, both of the original series were released on Amazon Prime on 1 November 2020.

Synopsis

A community of comic book fans believe the graphic novel The Utopia Experiments predicted several disastrous epidemics, such as mad cow disease. A rumoured unpublished sequel supposedly contains further information on future world events. When one Utopia enthusiast procures the manuscript, he invites four of his friends from an online forum to meet in real life before he gets killed. However, after getting their hands on the manuscript, the four – Ian, Becky, Wilson, and Grant – find themselves in over their heads, as a secret organization only known as "The Network" is after it. They find their lives systematically dismantled, while The Network operatives kill anyone in their way as they hunt for the manuscript and someone named Jessica Hyde.
Jessica, who has been on the run from The Network her entire life, meets with the group and helps them evade capture. Meanwhile, other characters find themselves ensnared in The Network's orbit, and through their interactions with its agents, the organization's purpose and secret plot come into focus. The closer people come to understanding what's truly going on, the more dangerous things become. As rumours of "Russian flu" proliferate worldwide and a variety of groups and individuals close in on the protagonists, they try to solve the web of mysteries and conspiracies around them.

Cast

Main

  • Fiona O'Shaughnessy as Jessica Hyde, a woman who has been on the run from The Network for as long as she can remember. Her father, Philip Carvel, created the Utopia manuscripts. Aine Garvey portrays a young Jessica.
  • Alexandra Roach as Becky, a post-grad student. Convinced there is a conspiracy surrounding her father's death connected to the Utopia manuscript, she is determined to find out the truth. She suffers from the mysterious "Deel's syndrome," for which she has been taking medication.
  • Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Ian Johnson, an IT consultant who still lives with his mother.
  • Adeel Akhtar as Wilson Wilson, a survivalist conspiracy theorist. He finds his loyalties divided as he learns more about The Network's plans.
  • Oliver Woollford as Grant Leetham, a troubled 11-year-old boy. Originally pretending to be an adult online, he ends up with the Utopia manuscript. He is later framed for a school shooting and forced to go on the run.
  • Paul Higgins as Michael Dugdale, a civil servant who finds himself blackmailed by The Network over his affair with a Russian prostitute.
  • Neil Maskell as Arby/Piètre, a Network agent searching for Jessica Hyde and the Utopia manuscript. He is unstable and emotionally disconnected. Mason and Harley Rooney portray a Young Arby.
  • Geraldine James as Milner, an MI5 agent whom the group turns to for help. Rose Leslie portrays a younger Milner.

    Recurring

  • Ruth Gemmell as Jen Dugdale, Michael's wife.
  • Emilia Jones as Alice Ward, a schoolgirl who becomes embroiled in the conspiracy after Grant meets her and hides the Utopia manuscript in her bedroom.
  • Alistair Petrie as Geoff Lawson, Secretary of State for Health and Michael's boss, an inside man for The Network.
  • Paul Ready as Lee, Arby's partner. He takes a special delight in interrogation and torture.
  • Simon McBurney and Michael Maloney as Christian Donaldson, a scientist whom Michael asks for help.
  • James Fox as Letts' Assistant. Ed Birch portrays a younger Assistant.
  • Stephen Rea as Conran Letts, the acting CEO of Corvadt, a biological sciences company and apparent head of The Network.
  • Anna Madeley as Anya Levchenko, a Russian sex worker with whom Michael is having an affair.
  • Mark Stobbart as Bejan Chervo, the finder of the Utopia II manuscript who invites Ian, Becky, Grant and Wilson to meet him. Before he can do so, he is murdered by Arby and Lee.
  • Sylvestra Le Touzel as Leah Gorsand, CEO of Rochane Foundation, an NGO funding the Russian flu vaccine campaign, underwriting the cost for countries that cannot afford it.
  • Ian McDiarmid as 'Anton', a confused old Romanian who is in fact the scientist Philip Carvel, the long thought dead creator of The Utopia Experiments. Tom Burke portrays a younger Carvel.
  • Gerard Monaco as Joe, Ian's colleague.

    Guest

  • Michael Smiley as Detective Inspector Joshua Reynolds, a police officer investigating Bejan's death.
  • Alan Bentley as Scientist. Ian Porter portrays a younger Scientist.
  • Eleanor Matsuura as Bev, Michael's colleague who signs off on the purchase of the Russian flu vaccine.
  • Anca-Ioana Androne as Brosca, Philip Carvel's wife.
  • Tim McInnerny as Airey Neave, a politician who received information from Philip Carvel through ambassador Richard Sykes.
  • Emil Hostina as Marius, a Romanian translator whom Becky, Grant, and Ian use to communicate with Anton/Philip Carvel.
  • Kevin Eldon as Tony Bradley, a scientist and author of a book on Deel's Syndrome.
  • Will Attenborough as Ben, a member of a hacking collective who assists the main characters.
  • Juliet Cowan as Bridget, a scientist colleague of Michael who notices discrepancies in government plans for the Russian flu vaccine.
  • Sacha Dhawan as Paul Simpson, a Network sleeper agent.
  • Steven Robertson as Terrence Truman, another Network sleeper agent.
  • David Calder as Dobri Gorski, Donaldson's former professor who attempted to fake his death to evade The Network.
  • Dara Ó Briain as himself
  • Jon Snow as himself

    Production

In April 2012, Channel 4 announced that it had commissioned a six-episode drama series titled Utopia. The series was written by Dennis Kelly and produced by Kudos Film and Television. Marc Munden was chosen as the director, Rebekah Wray-Rogers the producer, and Dennis Kelly, Jane Featherstone, and Karen Wilson the executive producers.

Conception and development

Kudos Film and Television approached Kelly with an idea about a conspiracy hidden inside a graphic novel. Kelly liked some of the idea, but some of it he changed. The story involved a shadowy organisation called The Network, and Kelly initially came out with an idea that The Network might be responsible for the rise in conspiracy theories because they thought it would be the best way to hide an actual conspiracy. Kelly said he does not believe in conspiracy theories, but is fascinated by them. The series took about two years to come to fruition.
Prior to receiving the commission from Channel 4, the show was being developed at Sky, where it was intended to connect with another series. As Dennis Kelly recalls, the sister show – which was in development at the same time – followed the 1960s and 1970s hippie scene. The two were intended to share some limited continuity, but be made by different showrunners and production companies. Sky ultimately declined to commission either series.
Munden modelled the tone of Utopia on the early films of Roman Polanski, specifically Cul-de-sac.

Post-production

To emulate the graphic novel printing process, Munden chose to use a Technicolor palette: "The three-strip Technicolor process we use is the opposite colours – yellows, cyan, magentas. I was interested in Doris Day films from the 1950s that pushed those distinct elements." Colourist Aidan Farrell used grading software Nucoda Film Master to paint bolder colours into the shots. By the second series the production crew were preparing the film sets for grading.
Despite taking up just one line in the pilot script, director Marc Munden has described Lee’s distinctive yellow bag as “a sort of jumping off point for the rest of the colour palette” for the show. The colour yellow went on to feature extensively in the promotional campaign for the first series.
For Utopia's soundtrack, Munden and composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer took inspiration from film composers such as Krzysztof Komeda and Eric Rogers, and the electronic music of Delia Derbyshire and Stock, Hausen & Walkman. Tapia de Veer heavily used field recordings to create the show's electronic soundtrack. These varied recordings included the sounds of rhino excrement, a Chilean trutruca, and the voice of director Alex García López. According to Tapia de Veer, "it was more about catching spirits on tape than organizing notes; an approach that helped articulate the mad complexity of Utopia’s characters and abstract yet emotional situations." Tapia de Veer has said that the human voice appeals to him because of its range, explaining "it can be extremely creepy, or very moving".
Tapia de Veer said in an interview with the Royal Television Society that Utopia first resonated with him in part because of his time growing up in Pinochet’s Chile. Living under dictatorship imbued him with a dark sense of humour, similar to the one he recognised in Utopia.

Filming locations

Utopia is set in London, but was filmed mostly in Merseyside and Yorkshire between April and October 2012, while the panning shot of the Mercury Hotel in the first episode was filmed in Westhoughton. Producer Bekki Wray-Rogers claimed the reason for this was that no other area in the UK could have provided them with such a variety of locations. Some scenes, such as the office of Conran Letts, were filmed at Scarisbrick Hall near Ormskirk. Scenes for the school shooting in episode 3 were filmed at Alsop High School in Walton whilst the school was closed for summer in July 2012. The empty red sandstone stately home the group make use of from episode 4 is filmed at Woolton Hall. The café scene in the fifth episode is filmed at TC's Cafe & Take-Away on Southport New Road near the village of Mere Brow. Many scenes were filmed in Crosby and Skelmersdale. Scenes set in the office of a fictional newspaper were shot in the offices of the Liverpool Echo newspaper on Old Hall Street in Liverpool. The final scene of the first series, with Jessica and Milner, was shot atop the Cunard Building, one of Liverpool's "three graces".
In the second series, locations used included Barnsley Interchange in Barnsley, Temple Works in Leeds, The Chocolate Works in York, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, and various spots in Leeds city centre, which doubled as London by superimposing London landmarks on the horizon. The scene in which Mr Rabbit and Philip Carvel meet was filmed at Allerton Castle near Harrogate. The abandoned building in the second episode of series 2 was shot in the former Terry's Chocolate Factory in York.