A tale to chill you
SPOOKY YARN BASED ON ILL-FATED ARCTIC EXPEDITION WILL SEND A SHIVER DOWN YOUR SPINE... AND NOT JUST DUE TO THE ICE-BOUND SETTING
THE TERROR BBC2, 9pm
PREPARE for a scare, as this chiller brings a tale of horror on the ocean to the small screen.
It first aired in the US nearly three years ago, but now the menacing 10-parter, executive produced by Ridley Scott, finally hits mainstream UK television.
Ciaran Hinds, Jared Harris, Paul Ready and Tobias Menzies head up the cast, while sumptuous sets and costumes bring some movie magic.
The series is loosely based on true events, in that in the mid-1800s, two British ships headed out on an ambitious voyage to the Arctic and never returned.
Some scattered clues give scant idea of what happened to them, but let’s hope it was nothing like you’ll see in this account.
We’re told that in 1845, two Royal Navy ships left England to find a passage through the Arctic, in the most technologically advanced ships of their day… but they vanished.
Years later there are only whispered rumours of a “thing made of muscles and spells” and the men being pursued until they were dead and gone.
The action cuts to HMS Erebus and HMS Terror on icy waters in 1846. The two crews are headed up by Sir John Franklin (Hinds) and Captain Francis Crozier (Harris), who don’t get on that well – while Captain James Fitzjames (Menzies) likes to stir up trouble.
Nonetheless, it’s initially all dining and drinking and telling anecdotes about how brave they are.
But then some unexpected events spook the crew and it all starts going very wrong for the ill-fated expedition.
Hold your nerve for a double bill of episodes.