Ultraviolet DVD Boxed Set

"Ultraviolet" is about vampires though it never calls them that (referring to them as "Code 5's" or, in a more derogatory fashion, as "Leeches") but they are vampires all the same and the series was shown on UK Channel 4 television about 3 or 4 years ago.

True to all vampire tales it is the church (the Catholic Church) that is involved in defending humanity and though crucifixes, bibles and such do work against them (implying that there must be a spiritual element) the series tries to approach vampires from a more scientific viewpoint. The series rapidly makes the viewer aware that "Code 5's" are another "race" or "species" that rely on us for their food, that they cannot be seen in mirrors, that they cannot use hi-tech devices to communicate such as phones, radio etc. and that they are determined to stop us destroying ourselves if they have to take control of us to do so. Like other series the leeches require human assistance since they are vulnerable to daylight (somewhat combustible), the usual spiritual deterrents and stakes through the heart (presumably churches too as our heroes HQ is set up in one) but the "good guys" use ultraviolet light (the component of sunlight the leeches can't handle and the reason for the cool choice of name for the series), hardened charcoal bullets instead of stakes and gun mounted scanners that can highlight vampires by showing them to be invisible through hi-tech equipment.

The series features Jack Davenport (of "This Life" fame to UK viewers) who becomes curious as to why his best friend is behaving strangely (including ditching his bride at the alter) after which he is recruited to, and somewhat reluctantly joins, a branch of the special services (known as CIB) which deals with incidences concerning "Code 5" infections. In CIB Mike (Davenport) joins forces with Vaughn (Idris Elba) & Angela March (Susannah Harker) under the leadership of the quiet priest Pearse (Philip Quast) to combat the leeches but, to do so, he must abandon previous acquaintances and start a new life (which explains some of his reluctance) which is made difficult by his best friend's ex Kirstie (Colette Brown) who is remarkably persistent at trying to find out what has happened to her fiancé and why Mike is behaving so strangely.

The vampires are sophisticated and use scams, frauds, and other techniques to acquire money and thus work within the human economic system as well as investigating the "pollution" or "contamination" of their food supply by carrying out experiments of the kind the Nazi's would have been proud of ... they also claim that they are persecuted & hunted down by church run death squads (if you'll excuse the cynicism it is not, after all, as if the church has no previous expertise in this area).

Joe Ahern, who wrote & directed the series (ably aided by a fine production team one of whom I know personally), investigates a number of issues over the all too short course of the series such as the nature of the vampire "race", whether they possess souls as do humans (bearing in mind this is fiction), whether they are out to dominate us, whether they should have some kind of right to feed off us and whether they should be treated as some kind of ethnic minority rather than simply hunted down and executed. Not, according to this series, that they can ever be truly killed as once terminated the powdery remains of the vampires are sealed in tubes and locked in a vault that is referred to as a prison by it's human keepers.

In terms of Extras the DVD set is somewhat let down as there is just a PC screensaver, some weblinks, trailers, still photographs & biographies ... there are no featurettes or commentaries or anything that turns a good DVD set (that this is) into a truly excellent one. That said, in Ultraviolet, Ahern brings as a sharply written script, with some cynical humour, morality issues & conspiracies and he does so with style. Ultimately Ultraviolet is a slick psychological thriller and Channel 4 manages to live up to its usual reputation of producing or buying a quality series ... it's just a shame their ability to promote the same is so lousy and it is a shame that the promise of more and better to come is not met (so thanks Channel 4 for that).