Amazon Prime Video

THE TERROR SEASON 1

Based on the book by Dan Simmons, this bleak but gripping and masterfully made horror series is a fictionalised account of Franklin’s lost expedition.

It’s one of maritime history’s greatest mysteries – what happened to two British ships during an Arctic expedition in 1845. The prophetically named HMS Terror and HMS Erebus set off under Captain John Franklin in search of the Northwest Passage, a sea route through the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific.

But the ships became stuck in the ice for more than a year and were abandoned in 1848. The men set off in search of land and were never seen again.

Though Simmons added supernatural horror elements, the story is anchored in the painful reality of what these men probably went through, from scurvy and lead poisoning to mutiny and madness.

Ciarán Hinds as Franklin and especially Jared Harris (Chernobyl) as Captain Francis Crozier and Tobias Menzies (Outlander) as Commander James Fitzjames give nuanced, well-rounded performances, but the acting of the whole cast, from the smallest to the biggest part, is impeccable.

There’s also an impressive attention to historical detail and you become completely immersed in the almost otherworldly Arctic setting.

The show started out as a 10-episode mini-series but has now been turned into an anthology show, with season 2 – subtitled Infamy – set in a Japanese internment camp during World War 2 and unrelated to season 1. The age restriction is 16.