The Last Enemy (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Last Enemy is a BBC
TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch
and featuring Robert Carlyle
and Max Beesley
which first aired on 17 February 2008.
beset by terrorism and illegal immigration
, it features the introduction of "TIA" (Total Information Awareness), a centralised database
that can be used to track and monitor anybody effectively by putting all available government information in one place. The story deals with a political cover-up centred around a rogue batch of vaccine that seems to be causing a deadly virus
, as well as the moral
, social
and privacy
concerns of such a system in a post-7/7
world. The story is told through the eyes of a mathematical genius, Stephen Ezard, who is portrayed as a recluse and showing some signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder
. The final episode then has a plot twist
in which this apparent virus is shown to be in fact an ethnicity-specific side effect of an experiment in producing an internal, injected and unfakeable bio-tag, a side-effect, which affects Arabs, but not Caucasians, and so (to avoid international scandal) has had to be shut down.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English film, television, and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking ; William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace ; the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy ; Paul...
and featuring Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
and Max Beesley
Max Beesley
Maxton Gig Beesley Jr. , known simply as Max Beesley, is an English actor and musician.Beesley rose to fame for his role of Andy Simpson in Every Woman, Every Man from 1993 to 1998, and has since appeared in a variety of television shows including Bodies, Hotel Babylon, London Ink, Survivors and...
which first aired on 17 February 2008.
Plot
Set in a near-future United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
beset by terrorism and illegal immigration
Illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...
, it features the introduction of "TIA" (Total Information Awareness), a centralised database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
that can be used to track and monitor anybody effectively by putting all available government information in one place. The story deals with a political cover-up centred around a rogue batch of vaccine that seems to be causing a deadly virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
, as well as the moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
, social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
and privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
concerns of such a system in a post-7/7
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
world. The story is told through the eyes of a mathematical genius, Stephen Ezard, who is portrayed as a recluse and showing some signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive–compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions...
. The final episode then has a plot twist
Plot twist
A plot twist is a change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of a film, television series, video game, novel, comic or other fictional work. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation...
in which this apparent virus is shown to be in fact an ethnicity-specific side effect of an experiment in producing an internal, injected and unfakeable bio-tag, a side-effect, which affects Arabs, but not Caucasians, and so (to avoid international scandal) has had to be shut down.
Viewing figures
| Episode number | Season | Original airing | Total viewers | Audience share (average) | Season viewer average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Season 1 | 17 February 2008 | 4.2m | 18% | 2.7m |
| 2 | Season 1 | 24 February 2008 | 2.5m | 10% | |
| 3 | Season 1 | 2 March 2008 | 2.3m | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Season 1 | 9 March 2008 | 2.5m | 10% | |
| 5 | Season 1 | 16 March 2008 | 2m | 8% | |
Distribution
- The Last Enemy aired in the United States on PBS stations on Masterpiece Contemporary.
- In AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, The Last Enemy TV series commenced airing on free-to-air-TV on ABC1ABC1ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...
(the national public television channel) from 8:30pm on 19 July 2009 and concluded on 16 August 2009.
- The Last Enemy aired on TVOTVOTVO is an abbreviation with several different significations:*Televisora de Oriente, a Venezuelan TV station*Teollisuuden Voima, a Finnish nuclear power company*Total Value of Ownership, an evaluation method*TVOntario, a Canadian TV station...
in Ontario, Canada from 9:00 pm on 1 April 2009 to 29 April 2009