Dominic Mitchell’s zombie drama In The Flesh was one of the real success of last year, and Series Two is just around the corner.
The three-part first series was set after a zombie uprising has been countered with a medical cure, and teenage zombie Kieren returning to his intolerant home town of Roarton as a PDS (Partially Deceased Sydrome) sufferer struggling to reintegrate.
With a six-episode series and a broader scope, Mitchell tells SciFiNow that there’s much more opportunity to explore the characters and the town of Roarton.
“It was a luxury,” he explains. “We can really delve into those characters. That’s been the fantastic thing about having six episodes that we can just explore more of the characters and their psychology, and we can explore more of Roarton.”
However, he’s quick to point out that just because the scope is broader, it doesn’t mean things will be any less personal.
“Yeah, I hope that we kept that,” he agrees. “Especially with Kieren’s journey and not feeling very proud of who he is, actually not feeling proud at all. Without his cover up and his contacts in he can’t look at himself in the mirror, he really can’t. [His family] don’t want to talk about Kieren being partially deceased and what he did in his undead state. His dad is like, ‘Oh, you just walked around, you just stumbled around, you didn’t kill anyone, did you?’ And of course, Kieren did, so we’ve still got all that.”
“It’s still intimate, it’s still domestic, we’re dealing with issues of what happens when you go away and someone falls out of love with you and you want them back. So it’s still really intimate domestic stories, but we just happen to be in a post-apocalyptic zombie world.”
As for Kieren himself, Mitchell explains that he’s still very much stuck in Roarton.
“It’s been nine months since the end of Series One,” he tells us. “He’s living with his parents, he’s working in The Legion, wanting desperately to get out of Roarton – he doesn’t want to pull pints for the rest of his eternity, as he says! Series One sort of dealt with his past, we’re sort of dealing with his present, and how he feels about being partially deceased. He’s still wearing the make-up, he’s wearing the contacts all the time and he’s pretending to be living. And he’s not really embracing that part of himself that is undead, really. He doesn’t like to think of himself as undead, he doesn’t like to think of himself as partially deceased, he likes to think of himself as living.”
Fans tuning in for Series Two will also want to make sure they turn on their televisions on time. “The opening scene of the series is a shocker, I’m really proud of it!” Mitchell enthuses. “It will have people, I hope, absolutely on the edge of their seats and completely shocked about it. I can’t tell you any more, I’m really excited for people to see it, I think people will be shocked!”
In The Flesh Series Two begins on BBC3 in May. You can pre-order In The Flesh Series 1 & 2 on Blu-ray for £17.75 at Amazon.co.uk.
