Cover story
A SUPERNATURAL SERIAL KILLER is loose on the streets of Victorian London in Sky Atlantic’s fantasy drama
Fantasy drama The Nevers centres on Victorian women with unusual abilities and relentless enemies
The Nevers
Monday, Sky Atlantic HD, 10.10pm
VICTORIAN VALUES AND supernatural forces collide to thrilling effect in Sky Atlantic’s action-packed new fantasy drama starring Happy
Valley’s James Norton and
Outlander’s Laura Donnelly.
As the story begins, an otherworldly event in London in 1896 has caused some of the city’s population – mainly women – to develop mysterious powers, ranging from superhuman strength to an ability to control fire.
Almost overnight, the women are branded dangerous and unnatural. Dubbed the ‘Touched’, they find themselves excluded from Victorian society, maligned by the Government, feared by loved ones and a target for sinister organisations.
The series – which consists of 12 episodes, split into two six-episode parts – follows Touched widow Amalia True (Donnelly), who sees glimpses of the future and who runs St Romaulda’s Orphanage, a haven for the Touched, most of whom have been rejected by their families.
Amalia’s ability to see what lies ahead drives her belief that the women must band together and use their gifts to fight encroaching malicious forces. Together with Touched inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), who can see electricity and manipulate its currents, she travels across London rescuing the Touched and bringing them back to the orphanage.
Owned by wealthy philanthropist Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams), St Romaulda’s is a sanctuary where the Touched are accepted for who they are and cared for by Dr Horatio Cousens (Zackary Momoh), a Touched physician who has supernatural healing powers.
‘My first reaction to the script was how beautifully it was written and how complex the characters were,’ says Donnelly, 38. ‘There are so many different elements – drama, action, touching moments, and also some really funny scenes. The show
was pitched to me as being like a female Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid and Amalia and Penance have a real chemistry.’
In this week’s episode, Amalia and Penance come to the rescue of Myrtle (Viola Prettejohn), a young Touched girl, as she’s being snatched by hooded thugs. Together, they manage to fight off the men, using Amalia’s kick-ass combat skills and Penance’s ingenious gadgets.
‘It required six weeks of training to learn the different physical skills to play Amalia,’ says Donnelly. ‘It was a steep learning curve, but one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever learnt to do. It’s actually easier to do an action scene in a corset than you would think, but the long skirt was a nightmare.’
The episode also introduces us to underworld leader the Beggar King (Nick Frost) and gruff Inspector Frank Mundi (Ben Chaplin), who is on the hunt for a Touched serial killer called Maladie (Amy Manson), who derives power from pain and who kidnaps singer Mary Brighton (Eleanor Tomlinson).
Meanwhile, James Norton plays the entitled and flirtatious aristocrat Hugo Swann, a privileged pleasureseeker who runs a notorious sex club. He’s keen to exploit the Touched and manipulates his respectable but naive Etonian buddy Augustus ‘Augie’ Bidlow (Tom Riley) to get what he wants.
‘Hugo’s not callous – he just has enough ridiculous self-confidence not to care what people think about him,’ explains Norton.
The series is the brainchild of
Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., although the showrunner stepped back from the project for personal reasons after the first six episodes were completed, and was replaced by British screenwriter Philippa Goslett.
‘The Nevers is kind of undefinable and genre-bending,’ adds Norton, 35. ‘It’s exciting to be part of a show that is both really fun and escapist, but it also has a real heart and an important message about inclusivity and celebrating difference and variety.’
For Donnelly, one of the most challenging scenes came in episode three when Amalia grapples with an enemy who has the ability to walk on water. She spent a week filming the fight scene in the underwater tank at Pinewood Studios.
‘I’d never done anything like it before,’ she reveals.
‘The Pinewood tank is where they’ve done all the underwater James Bond scenes – it has so much history and I was thrilled to be there. But once I got five metres underwater and they asked me to take off my goggles and my breather, I suddenly got terrified. I don’t get scared very easily, especially not with physical stuff, so that was really the first time that I’ve ever been in a situation where I thought, “I am figuratively and literally out of my depth
here!”’