Script Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/scripts/tv-drama/in-the-flesh
SYNOPSIS
18-year-old Lisa Lancaster does a shop in an abandoned supermarket. She wears the uniform of the Human Volunteer Force (HVF) and carries a semi-automatic rifle. Her shop is interrupted when she trips on a body being consumed by a female zombie. While fleeing, a second zombie cuts off Lisa’s escape. Kieren Walker, the second zombie, wakes from his nightmare, caused by an ‘Involuntary Recurrent Memory’, a side-effect of his medication. Kieren’s doctor prepares him for his imminent rerelease into the world. No longer a zombie, Kieren is medically known as a ‘Partially Deceased Syndrome’ (PDS) sufferer. Despite Kieren’s protests that he’s not ready, arrangements for his departute have already been made. In his northern hometown of Roarton, his parents try to sell their house to a couple. The sale falls apart when Kieren’s sister, Jem, reveals to the couple that the HVF is still active in the town, a group she is still a member of. During Kieren’s last group therapy session, fellow PDS sufferer Alex tries to convince them their medication is a form of oppression. Keith, Kieren’s caseworker, calms raised tensions by asking Kieren what he’s looking forward to seeing again. His sister, Jem. The PDS sufferers are sent to collect the mousse and contact lenses they will need to wear to pass as alive when they leave the facility. Roarton’s HVF cell convene in The Legion, the town’s only pub, to plan a scout for ‘rotter’s’, unmedicated undead, after the government have withdrawn their support for the group. At their last injection-top up at the PDS facility, Alex tells Kieren about ‘the Prophet’ of the undead, giving him a link and password to the Prophet’s website. Alex then secretly takes a pill which causes him to go rabid. Alex is restrained and hauled away. In the dead of night, Kieren and other PDS sufferers are herded into a bus and taken away to a more presentable facility to be picked up by their loved ones.
Kieren’s parents, before sunrise, secretly take the drive to Norfolk to pick up Kieren. After an emotional reunion, Keith voices concerns to Kieren’s parents about his safety in Roarton but accepts their declarations that the town has become more tolerant. On the return to Roarton, the Walkers are met by the locals vacating the church early. They were visited by the MP for Partially Deceased Affairs and had driven him out of town. Kieren’s parents force him to hide while their neighbour gloats about the communities’ antics. Scared and confused, Kieren is smuggled into his house where he finds his bedroom completely unchanged since his death. The Walkers are quickly visited by Shirley, a former care worker who now moonlights as a PDS care giver. She guides Kieren’s parents on how to administer his medication, then asks them not to tell her son, Philip, what she’s doing. He is on the parish council. During that afternoon’s council meeting, the council are interrupted by HVF member Gary, who has found a sheep with its brain hollowed out. Evidence of unmedicated ‘rotters’ in town. Vicar Oddie, already suspecting Shirley of lying about her occupation, requests Philip investigate. After complete rejection from his sister, Kieren retreats to his room. In their respective houses, Kieren and HVF leader Bill remember young soldier, Rick. Waiting for Shirley to go to bed, Philip finds evidence on her laptop that she is rehabilitating the undead. He makes a copy of a portion of his mother’s patient list to a USB stick. Kieren once again suffers his nightmare of the supermarket, remembering his fight with Lisa Lancaster. When he wakes, he finds Jem in his room. She refuses to believe that he really is her brother, then curses him for killing himself and leaving her alone. The monotony of the following day drives Kieren to the house desktop to look up the Prophet’s website. Halfway through the Prophet’s speech, reflecting Alex’s sentiments, Kieren is interrupted by his dad. Meeting with Bill, Vicar Oddie gives the HVF leader the information stolen by Philip. Bill, enraged, decides to act.
Jem, sat at a bus stop, hears on the HVF walkie-talkie that the group are convening on her street to kill a ‘rotter’. She rushes home to warn her family. On hearing Jem’s warning, the Walker’s hide Kieren and prepare to fight the HVF. The HVF pull up onto the street and go to the house opposite. Kieren watches from his hiding place as Bill drags elderly PDS sufferer Maggie out onto the street. He makes her take her contact lenses out and executes her in front of her pleading husband. Returning home, Bill finds a military vehicle outside his home. Suspecting his imminent arrest, he goes inside. The officers reveal they’ve found his son, Rick, in Afghanistan. Alive. Partially. After witnessing Maggie’s execution, Kieren goes to Jem, but finds her in her room, stashing a pistol under her pillow before getting into bed.
PREMISE
The world has suffered a zombie apocalypse, but it’s over now. Science has found a way to cure the undead. Governments are now releasing them back into society, to their old lives, whether they or their communities like it or not. For Kieren Walker, who grew up in the closed-minded northern town of Roarton and killed himself, the situation is less than ideal. The war with the undead has forged Roarton into a town of warriors, the birthplace of the Human Volunteer Force. Kieren’s own sister is still a member, despite the militia no longer being funded by the state.
Kieren, returned to his old life, must live in hiding or face persecution. His parents pretend that nothing has changed, and his sister struggles to believe he is the same person now as he was before he died. For Kieren, it’s familiar ground, having killed himself after the death of his (alluded to) secret boyfriend Rick, son of the HVF leader, Bill.
As Kieren looks for an escape on the internet, via a website for ‘enlightened’ undead, Bill and the HVF hunt for a suspected ‘rotter’ in their community. When Jem discovers they know the suspect lives on her street, she rushes to save her brother. The family, desperate to protect Kieren, force him into a wardrobe to hide him from Bill. From his hiding spot, Kieren sees what happens to people like him in this town. Elderly neighbour and fellow undead Maggie is dragged into the street and executed. Satisfied that he has protected his community, Bill returns home to discover his own son, Kieren’s secret boyfriend, has returned from the dead. And he’s coming home.
STRUCTURE
In The Flesh episode one is a carefully structured, well-paced, and thoroughly thought-out script. Not a single moment is laborious to read, as exposition is peppered throughout where appropriate, and avoided where not.
The opening moments set the tone with its punchy, subversive, yet recognisable ‘zombie apocalypse’ scene quickly followed by that same zombie somehow cognitive and in therapy. Without a single line of dialogue, the audience is simultaneously wrong-footed and reminded they are in comfortable hands. The opening moments of Kieren’s final day in therapy can run the risk of feeling laborious, but the writer appropriately cuts away to the wider context of life in Roarton to keep the audience engaged. Scenes in this opening act are expertly paced and logically ordered to maintain audience investment. The moments within the facility are also never repetitive, but do give the feeling that Kieren’s life here is monotonous.
As Kieren returns to Roarton, the story gains purposeful momentum, as the threads of the episodes arc weave and tighten towards the final moments on the street outside the Walker’s house. One note may be that between the PDS facility, the Walker’s, the HVF, and the Roarton locals all fighting for screen-time, the middle of the episode could potentially be streamlined. Predominantly, this would include the scene in the church, where the town drive the MP for Partially Deceased Affairs out of town. A compelling scene, but one that may detract from this being Kieren’s story.
The final act of the episode is perhaps the most compelling element of the entire script. Episodic writers can often suffer from revealing too much or too little in episode one, and even neglect structure entirely. The writer hasn’t fallen into any of these traps. The misdirect of the nosey neighbours is artfully executed, and the final moments are a shocking yet satisfying conclusion and cliff-hanger.
Overall, episode one is structured with expert precision, knowing when to introduce A, B, and C storylines, and almost never lingering too long on any one to let the audience forget the others are happening. The only note to truly give is to remember that this is Kieren’s story, and he perhaps gets lost in the middle of this episode as the writer sets up the wider drama to come.
CHARACTER
Characters in In the Flesh episode one are well realised, deeply individual, yet distinctly all part of the same community. The war with the undead has clearly left its mark on every character the audience sees, and the parallels with real-life rhetoric makes even the most deplorable acts somewhat understandable.
Kieren Walker, the beating heart of this series, is a passive voice, and frequently mute, through this first episode. In a story surrounded by characters with real agency, his lack of it sets him apart from the other characters. This is a powerful tool when used correctly, though there are perhaps moments where the writer can allude to the agency he will take later in the series. For example, the scene where Kieren remembers Rick is powerfully played against a similar scene from Bill’s perspective. But if, as we later learn, Rick’s death led to Kieren taking his own life, this scene could prove a powerful premonition of Kieren’s place in the drama to come. If this is, as the script would suggest, Kieren’s story, the writer may want to revisit some of his crucial scenes to consider his wants. The reveal that Rick is partially alive at the end of the episode is strong, but could be made stronger if Kieren had taken action earlier in the episode to foreshadow what he may do upon reuniting with the fallen soldier.
The litany of characters that populate Roarton are, despite their sheer volume, all artfully designed. Each character is woven into the dramatic themes with effortless ease, and their stories are set clearly and effectively. From Shirley’s inevitable discovery of Philips deception, to Philip’s desire for Vicar Oddie’s approval, to Bill’s inner turmoil over Rick’s partial survival, each story is established through the context of their character, rather than heavy-handed exposition.
The characters in episode one of In the Flesh are, on the whole, the scripts true strength. Some minor tweaks to justify Kieren’s place as the shows protagonist would elevate the script further. The audience should, at the end of episode one, know why they are rooting for Kieren’s success / failure, and what the stakes are. Threatening death on a suicide victim may not offer the strongest foil for drama.
DIALOGUE
Despite the show’s clear fantasy roots, the dialogue of this script feels as though it has been lifted from a conversation at the local pub. It is through the dialogue that the audience truly grasp this shows tone. In a post-COVID world, this tone is more believable than ever. By taking this tone, the writer avoids all the dialogue traps of the ‘post-apocalypse’ genre.
Within this tone, the real skill is in the regional dialects the writer employs. Class, region, and profession are all implicit in the dialogue of all the characters, saving the writer crucial moments where others would deliver over-exposition. This is especially effective in Kieren’s PDS facility scenes. Doctors do not over-explain the science, and the delivery of the contact lenses and mousse is done with identifiable bureaucratic nonchalance.
A layer the writer may consider adding if writing future drafts is time. How long were the PDS sufferers dead for? Language moves at an alarming pace in the modern age of social media. There is potential humour and drama in mining the conflict that arises from modern miscommunication. The tropes have moved beyond the older generation not understanding what a smart phone is, and this would be an excellent medium to explore the topic further.
VISUAL GRAMMAR
The visual flare of this script is immediately apparent. Despite the script being packed into a tight 60 pages, the visual elements are given the time to breathe they require to maximise their effect. Case-in-point is the opening scene. Half of the first page is spent describing a young girl doing her shopping, yet every sentence is packed with visual information that tells us, before the girl even opens her mouth, what kind of world this story is set in.
Kieren’s nightmares are also used to strong visual and narrative effect. Immediately taking us from witnessing him as a zombie to a scene of him in cognitive therapy throws the audience and presents clear, specific, narrative questions to unravel. The cutting of scenes in this way is used methodically throughout the episode, often to juxtapose a characters speech (Roarton is tolerant now) with the real-world situation (the locals of Roarton driving an MP out of town).
Given the subject matter, the themes of tolerance can be more prominent than if the writer had chosen to write about race or sexuality in a straight drama. The thematic visuals of the pub’s reverence for the HVF through the display of their flag, Kieren being literally hidden in a closet at the episodes close, and the whole story taking place in a post-pandemic world could be considered heavy-handed under different circumstances. The fantasy subject, however, gives the writer licence to be explicit, and even then, they have chosen only to use what is necessary.
The key takeaway from the visual style of this script is discipline. The writer’s disciplined approach to include what is necessary for tone, pace, or theme has created a distinct and exciting read.
CONCLUSION
In the Flesh episode one is a strong script. Through the specificity of its subject material, the writer has created something truly original in a well-established genre of writing. Asking the question “what if zombies got better?” could be clumsily handled, and lead to writers creating romping blockbusters of little substance. Instead, the writer has begun writing a compelling allegory for tolerance, regret, and herd mentality.
Moving forward, the writer should only consider minor amendments. Kieren is, by nature, a passive individual, but he is also lost in the plethora of side-stories presented in episode one. Some focus should be given to his narrative want. There are also some slightly dated references and uses of technology that may also grate with modern audiences. Walkie Talkies are dramatically and visually strong as a communication method, but audiences will need an explanation as to why smart phones aren’t an option anymore.
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