A DECADE SINCE ZOMBIE SHOW IN THE Flesh debuted on BBC Three, the series still stands out as a uniquely sensitive take on the undead – one whose themes have arguably become even more topical in this post-Covid era of proliferating conspiracy theories. The story behind it is equally remarkable: a TV fairy tale of a rookie striking gold and winning critical acclaim and prestigious awards, only for his creation to be cut down in its prime.
Set in the fictional small Lancashire town of Roarton, the series takes a kitchen sink approach to the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. It’s centred on Kieren Walker (Luke Newberry), a young man whose return home is greeted with suspicion and hostility – with good reason, because four years ago he was one of those who emerged from their graves on the night of The Rising, to feast upon the brains of the living.
Now, thanks to Neurotriptyline, a drug which prevents them going “rabid”, Kieren is one of thousands of undead (euphemistically termed Partially Deceased Syndrome sufferers) who’ve regained their memories and are being reunited with their loved ones.
The show was the brainchild of Dominic Mitchell, a playwright whose love of horror was sparked by Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, aged 12. “My friend gave me a copy to read,” he tells SFX. “I was never a big reader, because I suffer from dyslexia, but he said, ‘You’ve got to read this book. From the first page I was totally hooked. I read it in a weekend, then went rampaging through his back catalogue.”
Mitchell also became a “massive fan” of George Romero’s Dead movies, in part due to their social themes. “They really commented on society, and I think that’s what the zombie genre is so great for – using the zombies as a metaphor.”
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He was less impressed, however, by more mindless entries in the genre, like the “really bad, cheap zombie movie” he watched one night in 2007. “All the main characters were so macho and horrible that I was on the zombies’ side,” he remembers. “I was like, ‘Yeah, kill them! Eat their brains! They deserve to die!’”
