A FABULOUS GOOD FESTIVE BATTLE OF EVIL VERSUS

Ruth Wilson’s deliciously villainous Mrs Coulter faces an existential clash with James McAvoy’s Lord Asriel as this dark fantasy draws to its epic conclusion

For decades it had been said that J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings books were unfilmable – until Peter Jackson brought them to the big screen in his classic movies. So it was, too, for many years with another fantasy trilogy, the His Dark Materials series of novels by Sir Philip Pullman. Was it conceivable to capture on camera this brilliantly imagined alternative universe in which a monumental battle between good and evil takes place on the most epic scale, hopping between dimensions and even stretching to the heavens themselves?

Yet the BBC adaptation immediately proved the doubters wrong, both with viewers and critics when the first series was shown in 2019.

And now (delayed a year because of Covid restrictions on filming) comes the long-awaited eight-part conclusion to the saga.

As the story resumes, the heroic leader Lord Asriel (James McAvoy, above left) is gathering his forces for the existential battle that must ultimately be fought against the almost limitless but oppressive power of the Authority.

By his side should be the young girl who had once been thought to be an orphan but we now know to be his daughter – Lyra (Dafne Keen, above centre), who the prophecy says will one day bring about ‘the end of destiny’.

Yet for the moment Lyra is instead in the hands of her mother, arch-villainess Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson, above right), who, despite the affair she once had with Asriel, is poised to stand against him in the looming conflict. But there is another young ally set one day to stand with Asriel and possibly be the crucial difference between eternal victory and existential defeat: Will (Amir Wilson, above centre), who wields the magical ‘subtle knife’ that allows him to open up the different parallel universes, and is now determined to do all he can to rescue Lyra.

It’s a welcome return for a rare example of an intelligent drama that children and adults alike can enjoy, thanks to a script that respects the audience’s intelligence and provides a fine showcase for a terrific cast, and while the special effects are beguiling enough to make you believe the impossible, they never overwhelm the story.

Truth be told, if you haven’t already read the books or watched the first two series, you’d do best to binge-watch them before diving into these concluding episodes to fully understand the complex tale.

The only note of sadness is that we’ll have to bid farewell to the entire ensemble, not least

Ruth Wilson, once again proving how she can be deliciously evil, after her unforgettable performance as serial killer

Alice Morgan in Luther.