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Just
as viewers were recovering from the plethora of nuclear war-inspired
dramas in the 1980s, the late 1990s saw a spate of films and documentaries
on another disaster subject. Realisation had grown that the type of
doomsday asteroid impact that contributed to the dinosaurs' extinction was
not a one-off event. This had been backed up by scientific evidence that
pointed to a series of impacts in Earth's history. Programme makers were
not slow to follow this up and two movie blockbusters, Deep Impact and
Armageddon appeared in 1998, offering differing versions of what
would happen if Earth was threatened by an asteroid on collision course.
However, neither showed the aftermath of an impact.
This was where The Last Train came in, with
one of ITV's biggest-budgeted efforts: a six-part drama showing how a
small group of people could attempt to survive in the water-contaminated,
buildings-destroyed aftermath of such a collision. They are passengers on
a London-to-Sheffield train that is in a tunnel at the moment of impact.
The tunnel and most of the train is destroyed and the survivors are frozen
by the gaseous contents of a canister carried by scientist Harriet
Ambrose. When they awake and emerge from the wreckage, everything they
knew has gone, and at least two decades of decay has been added to it.
Most of the computer-generated special effects are in episode one, where a
Sheffield laid waste is seen in detail, but parts of the city were also
recreated in a disused psychiatric hospital, and several location settings
were also featured, including a disused holiday camp. The small group of
survivors slowly take in what has happened, begin to form into a team that
has its own triumphs and (very moving) tragedy to face, and heads towards
a spectacular conclusion as they head north.
Familiar faces in the cast included Touching Evil's
Nicola Walker as Harriet, Amita Dhiri (Milly from popular BBC2
twentysomething drama, This Life), former London's Burning veteran
James Hazeldine, and the immediately recognisable Christopher Fulford, who
crops up as a leading guest in many dramas, from Inspector
Morse to Cracker.
It was devised by writer Matthew Graham, whose credits to this point
included This Life and EastEnders. His brief was to
develop a post-apocalypse serial on the lines of Survivors, Terry
Nation's 1970s drama about life after a man-made virus has wiped out 95
per cent of the world's population, and parallels could be immediately
drawn between the two during the first episode. But this was a very
different programme which soon made its own identity felt. This was not
going to be an ongoing narrative describing the drawn-out collapse of
civilisation, and the long struggle to rebuild it. The main characters
were frozen in a form of suspended animation for (at least) fourteen years
while Earth recovered from the devastation of the initial meteor collision
and the nuclear winter which followed. The grim reality of surviving that
horror had already been described in the late Cold War drama Threads in
the early 1980s, and didn't need to be retold here.
This very gripping series started with two episodes
screened in a row; the dramatic opener on Wednesday 7th April, with
episode two following in the regular slot of 9.00pm on Thursday, where it
stayed for the remaining four weeks. It was pushed heavily by ITV, with
trailers constantly to be spotted during the mid- and late-evening's drama
output. The episodes of this single-series drama were untitled and
unnumbered, both on screen and in television listings magazines.
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Episode
One
A group of strangers are on board a train heading to
Sheffield. Only one of them, scientist Harriet Ambrose, knows what is about
to happen (although not how soon) as the train enters a tunnel and an
asteroid the size of Birmingham strikes Earth in the centre of Africa. The
shockwaves ruck up the planet's surface like a carpet, destroying most of
the civilised world. In the tunnel, the train is thrown off the rails and
mostly crushed by collapsing brickwork. Harriet releases the gaseous
contents of a canister she is carrying and an eerie calm descends on the
scene as everything is suspended for an unknown length of time. Upon waking,
the survivors climb through the wreckage and out of a strangely decayed
tunnel into the open air. They are shocked to find the world completely
transformed, with sub-tropical vegetation growing in thick masses, and ruins
littering the once-familiar landscape. Unfamiliar dangers await them as they
struggle to comprehend what has happened and how much their lives have been
changed.
Guard Roger Bingham
Coates Josh Moran
Teenager Chris Hoyle
Becky Abigail Hayes
Sam John Flitcroft
Danny Justin Ellery
Archie Robert Dunn
Director: Stuart Orme
Episode
Two
By now it has become clear how immense the effect of the
asteroid strike on Earth was. Survival is beginning to look increasingly
hard as the group of train crash survivors struggle to come to terms with
the loss of all their friends and loved ones, and the loss of several years
of their lives while they were "frozen". They begin to think of
searching for families and try to find some clean water to drink, but
Harriet's mind is firmly fixed on locating the government bunker in
Sheffield where Jonathan Geddes promised to stay and wait for her before the
asteroid hit. Sheffield is a much-changed place, and old maps are no longer
of any help, so finding the bunker is not easy. When it is uncovered,
contrary to expectations it is in ruins, all the rations are gone, and a
decayed body is discovered where Harriet expected to find Geddes. The bunker
is equipped with the same suspended animation gas that Harriet used in the
train, and Geddes has left a cryptic message and a surprise for Harriet if
she fails to understand it. Outside the bunker, a strange, wild-looking
young woman befriends Anita, but she brings with her a new problem. Someone
is hunting her.
Jonathan Geddes Ralph Brown
Director: Stuart Orme
Episode
Three
Having evacuated Sheffield and its packs of wild dogs
and less-than-friendly humans, the survivors head north in search of
Harriet's obsession, the supposed civilised paradise, a former top-secret
government base located in Scotland, called ARK. The going is slow. Main
roads are now virtually non-existent, and maps are proving unreliable in the
changed world. But, having eaten nothing since the train crash, finding food
is becoming a priority, and Mick takes control of the group to set about
finding nourishment. During the unlucky hunting of a wild pig, their
precious van becomes trapped in the topmost part of the ruins of a refinery,
sunken several hundred feet during the apocalypse earthquakes and now part
of an exposed cliff-face. Forced to make temporary camp, a hunting party
follows the pig into the refinery only to face a hunting Jaguar which lives
there. Jandra and Ian are forced together, and they begin to explore their
growing feelings for one another. Jandra's troubled son, Leo, comes across
them together and causes an accident that leaves Ian fearing for Jandra's
life.
(No guest cast)
Director: Alex Pillai
Episode
Four
Jandra is left lying at the bottom of the refinery
floor, conscious but unable to move. There is a great deal of drama in
trying to winch her out after an acid rainstorm has wrecked the pulley on
the surface, but even then it is unclear just what her injuries are and
whether she will survive. She is desperately ill and the survivors must
speed up their journey north. They arrive at the swollen River Tees, which
over the course of years has burst its old banks and now forms an
uncrossable barrier to the van in a world with no bridges. Hild, a native of
this new world, catches up with them and informs them of a former emergency
hospital that may be of some help, but neglects to mention that her own
people are hunting her. A dramatic confrontation with some of these people
occurs at the hospital, and the level of armament they carry forces Ian and
Harriet to take dramatic steps to ensure their own survival. Soon after,
while mourning their own tragic and very personal loss with a cremation on
the river's shore, the group come under attack by armed horsemen and are
forced to flee, taking a scared Hild with them.
Midwife Flo Wilson
Director: Alex Pillai
Episode
Five
Still being hunted by Hild's people, the survivors take
shelter in an apparently abandoned village. Once safely behind the
protective walls, they find a plentiful stock of food, drink and music in a
well-maintained environment with a fully functional pub, and, the immediate
danger behind them, personal issues begin to take prominence. Mick and Roe
find common ground, much to Colin's disapproval, while Ian and Leo are both
still confused and angry about their recent loss. Then the group discover
Mark and Gillian, father and daughter, who turn out to be the only remaining
participants of an attempt to live a community life confined within the town
walls. The polluted post-apocalypse atmosphere created infertility in many
women, and the younger village members, growing increasingly disillusioned
by their narrow lives, left one by one, until Mark's dream of rebuilding a
civilised society had died a slow death. Now he sees new promise in the
arrival of the survivors, and will not hear of them leaving. Finally
discovering just how many years they were trapped in the train, Mick loses
his van to Mark's fiery sabotage. During the confusion, Hild's people
arrive, and while Mick coaxes the unreliable Colin to help put up a
defensive fight, the others find refuge in the town church, where a
sacrifice must be made to satisfy the hunters, and a second, less expected
loss occurs when a prisoner is taken.
Mark Kenneth Colley
Gillian Deborah Findlay
Behemoth Dave Nicholls (Not credited on screen)
Hornrim Phil Smeeton (Not credited on screen)
Director: Alex Pillai
Episode
Six
Little do they realise it, but Hild's people, now with
Anita and Hild herself in tow, are headed towards the same destination as
the survivors. Mick, Ian and the others reach the ARK base first, arriving
at what on the outside is an abandoned power station. Harriet is eager to
get inside and make contact with Jonathan Geddes, but Hild's people arrive
and all hell breaks loose. In a running battle amid hills of industrial
refuse Mick is attacked but rescued by Leo Nixon, who is forced to kill for
the first time in this savage new world. Austin is captured while the others
gain the safety of the underground base. Mick, betrayed and cut off, is also
taken. Inside the apparently deserted base, Harriet finds and movingly loses
the object of her personal search, while tensions rise amongst the others.
Matters reach a head when Hild's people lash two crosses together and
brutally crucify Mick and Austin, before being allowed into the base.
Brought together despite their differences, Hild's people and the train
crash survivors witness Hild's act of giving birth to a very important
child. There is also one final, important secret to be revealed that might
help all of the survivors, train crash and apocalypse, to find some common
ground.
Hornrim Phil Smeeton
Behemoth Dave Nicholls
Karen Joy Carradice
Jonathan Geddes Ralph Brown
Jandra Nixon (flashback) Amita Dhiri
Stunt Co-ordinator Andy Bradford
Science Adviser Brian Marples PhD
Director: Stuart Orme
Filmed on location at Simon Jersey Ltd
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