Fallen Angel 

Ethereal beauty Angel Wharton is the devil in disguise. When she kidnaps a child as prey for a pedophile, you know she is evil. But what -- or who -- made her that way? This riveting ... See full summary »

Stars:

Charles Dance, Clare Holman, Barbara Wilshere

Cast

Series cast summary:
Charles Dance	...	David 3 episodes, 2007
Clare Holman	...	Wendy 3 episodes, 2007
Barbara Wilshere	...	Audrey Oliphant 3 episodes, 2007
Emilia Fox	...	Angel / ... 2 episodes, 2007
Peter Capaldi	...	Henry 2 episodes, 2007
Sheila Hancock	...	Lady Youlgreave 2 episodes, 2007
John Standing	...	The Voice of Francis Youlgreave 2 episodes, 2007

Storyline

Ethereal beauty Angel Wharton is the devil in disguise. When she kidnaps a child as prey for a pedophile, you know she is evil. But what -- or who -- made her that way? This riveting British miniseries explores the mind and motivations of a psychopath (Emilia Fox, The Pianist), moving backwards through time to learn where it all went wrong. Is it the fault of Angel's father (Charles Dance, Bleak House), an ambitious but distant vicar? Her weak mother? The family friend obsessed with secrets? A long-dead heretic priest and his apocalyptic writings? Or the family friend who betrayed her? Based on the acclaimed Roth Trilogy by crime writer Andrew Taylor, this tense drama unravels the web of circumstances that creates a serial killer. Also starring Clare Holman (Inspector Morse), Emma Fielding (Cranford), Mark Benton (Booze Cruise), and Niamh Cusack.

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Plot Keywords:

pedophile | priest | false identity | necklace | dementia | 

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Taglines:

The making of a murderer.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 March 2007 (UK)

Filming Locations:

Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

IWC Media,Ingenious Broadcasting,Alucard Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

205 min (3 parts)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Over the three episodes, Clare Holman's character was required to age by thirty years: in the first episode (which took place in the present day) she was made up to play a 65-year-old grandmother.

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Connections

Featured in Fallen Angel: Behind the Scenes (2007)

User Reviews

TV Drama at its best!

This is the story of a young female so obsessed with perfection and vengeance that she sees killing as a logical way to order her day to day and spiritual life.

Starting in the modern day Rosie/Angel (Emilia Fox) seems a cold and intense young woman who stalks and murders with a cool efficiency to honour her hero, Francis Youlgrave a disgraced former priest. Devoted to a pseudo-Catholic cult of her own making based on Youlgrave's poetry where she learns the cleric believed himself to be an angel and drifted along into the world of blood sacrifice in order to complete the Eucharist.

What pleased me most was that the TV trilogy is extremely faithful to the excellent Roth Trilogy books by Andrew Taylor, which like this were also in reverse chronological order. We learn in the first five minutes that Rosie mutilates children. However, this is not the mystery. The mystery is why she does it: what awful things could have happened to her to make this young, intelligent and beautiful woman act this way.

We are taken on a journey into the three most important parts of her past: Rosie in her 30's in busy London; Rosie as a seemingly happy-go- lucky teenager in the idyllic village of Roth, applying for a place at Cambridge and Rosie as a five year old with a terrible secret.

Fallen Angel is superbly put together as is the cast: Charles Dance as the stern, sinisterly cerebral vicar David, Emilia Fox as his daughter 18 year old Rosie and 30 something Angel who has taken her father's characteristics and changed them just slightly and become a monster, Mark Benton as Angel's dim-witted flatmate and Clare Holman the keeper of the family secret who tries to keep sanity and order throughout the three decades of the piece. Sheila Hancock and Peter Capaldi make creditable appearances too.

The plot gives many suggestions as to what makes a murderer: an obsession with Christ's body and blood, parental careerism, lust, personality disorders or simply living with secrets. Make your own decision

One thing is for certain Rosie is far from being a two dimensional villain and this drama left me unable to think about anything else after it had finished. Remarkable. This could not have been better.