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TV Production
BIG BROTHER’S INSIDE YOU
From here to dystopia. The Last Enemy takes a chilling look at Britain in the near future
Photo above: The Last Enemy DP Nigel Willoughby (left) with Director Iain B MacDonald; below: on location with star Benedict Cumberbatch
P roducer Gub Neal describes it as “a cautionary tale about
technology, with identity cards, biometric tests and armed police becoming an everyday
presence in our lives.” This is Box TV’s The Last Enemy, a new five-part thriller set in 2011, likely to be one of BBC One’s flagship shows for 2008.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Max Beesley, Anamaria Marinca and Robert Carlyle, it is, adds Neal, dark- ly, “predictive rather than science fiction because CCTV cameras and loyalty cards mean we’re already being monitored.”
An arresting look at how technol- ogy could transform Britain into a sur- veillance society – threatening human relationships and destroying trust – the tale also scarily weaves the idea of ethnic bombs and injected ‘tags’.
Written by Peter Berry (Prime Suspect 6, Kiszko – A Life For A Life) and directed by Iain B MacDonald (Mansfield Park, Hotel Babylon), The Last Enemy comprises a 90 minute opening episode then four one hours.
The production, also starring Geraldine James, Eva Birthistle
and David Harewood, filmed for 14 weeks in England and
Romania, where says DP Nigel Willoughby, locations and sever- al set builds in Bucharest skilful-
ly doubled for London.
For Willoughby, who only
came on to the project at the last moment and hadn’t
worked before with MacDonald (“a really good
director”), it was an enjoyable return to Romania where he’d
previously shot Gillies Mackinnon’s Gunpowder,
Treason And Plot.
“Because we were ostensibly shooting London on location in Bucharest, it gave the whole show a bit of an edge. There was one partic- ularly great warehouse set which I think used to be in a place where they once manufactured aircraft or munitions.”
Willoughby was also reunited with Fujifilm stocks, which he’d used over the past 18 months on both Ken Loach’s It’s A Free World and Mackinnon’s The History Of Mr Polly.
“I used four of the Fujifilm stocks – the ETERNA 250D, 250T, and 500T as well as the Super F-64D – particularly for one set of characters, the politicos and MI6, those sort of people.
“I also used a blue filter for them so every time you’re in their world, it’s fairly bluish. At night I always lit with foggy yellow colours so it’s all rather overcast and grim. Actually, I think it looks great.
“The jumps from blue to brown – which is how I shot the other set of characters – are, of course, quite sub- tle but the idea is you know instinc- tively which world you’re in, in any given scene.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
The Last Enemy was principally originated on 16mm ETERNA 500T 8673, ETERNA 250D 8663, ETERNA 250T 8653 and Super F-64D 8622
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