Apparitions On BBC One~ Review

This brand new six part drama series, Apparitions, started on BBC One last night and was as good as the somewhat subdued hype promised. Aunty Beeb hasn’t really made much of a fuss about Apparitions and I think they should have done. It was an excellent opening episode which – if you could suspend your disbelief long enough – brought the principles and story behind The Exorcist into the 21st century.

Apparitions is a hard-hitting story takes us on a terrifying journey into a world of possession and satanic conspiracy. All out war between good and evil is imminent; and it’s time to choose sides.

Martin Shaw stars as Father Jacob, a Roman Catholic priest who’s working to promote candidates for sainthood – and primarily Mother Teresa – but who is inexorably drawn, initially against his will, into the world of exorcism.

The idea for the series came from Martin himself. He’d always wanted to play an exorcist so his idea was subsequently picked up and developed further by Joe Ahearne, one of the creators of This Life, Ultraviolet and Doctor Who.

Tony Wood, Creative Director of Lime Pictures, the company behind the show’s production, said, “Joe Ahearne has created a gripping story of intrigue and mystery which raises as many questions as it answers.

“Martin Shaw is the perfect choice to play the lead role in this bold series, a very different and darker acting challenge to that which the audience will have seen him in before.”

In last night’s first episode we were introduced to the story which is centered on the character of Father Jacob. His job within the church is to promote candidates for sainthood but in his search for miracles, he occasionally sees the hand of Satan and performs an exorcism when it’s required.

Although a reluctant exorcist, he has an undeniable talent for it and his mentor Monsignor Vincenzo, played by Luigi Diberti, wants him to take over when he retires as Chief Exorcist of Rome.

Vincenzo reveals to Father Jacob that his name has come up in exorcisms and that the demons fear him. Jacob refuses Vincenzo and won’t hear of his becoming Chief Exorcist but when 10 year old Donna turns up in his office begging for help, he’s intrigued by what she has to say and is driven in his desire to help her.

Donna is convinced that her dad Liam, played by Shaun Dooley, is possessed. At first, Jacob thinks Liam’s hatred of religion is just popular atheism but as the evidence mounts, and he begins to fear for Donna’s safety, Jacob has to find a way to persuade this militant atheist to consent to an exorcism.

However, while Donna takes up Jacob’s time and attention, satanic forces are in play in Jacob’s seminary and their target is Jacob’s protégé and trainee priest Vimal. Played by Elyes Gabel, Vimal is taunted by a person who appears to be a homeless man, Michael, but Michael is not what he seems to be; he is possessed by a demon and he taunts Vimal constantly.

In 1997, Vimal was miraculously cured of leprosy after he prayed to Mother Teresa, which is how he first met Jacob. But now, Michael tells him that his miraculous recovery and “new skin” was Satan’s miracle, not God’s. And Michael warns that unless Vimal agrees to use Satan’s gift as he directs, it will be taken back.

Michael warns a frightened and deeply troubled Vimal that if he tries to help Jacob in his exorcism of Donna’s father, the demons will reveal Vimal’s secret, which is that he is homosexual.

In the meantime, Jacob confronts Liam after Donna goes to him at the church bearing bruises from where her father – while influenced by his demons – hit her when he found her reading the bible.

It seems at first that he’s persuaded the man to accept exorcism but when Jacob begins the process, the demons possessing Liam make themselves known and tell the Priest that they will claim as their own his trainee Vimal and little Donna unless he stops his interference. Refusing to be cowed by the demons, Father Jacob continues the ritual of exorcism so Liam throws him across the room, leaving him unconscious.

Intent then on carrying out the demonic threats, Liam leaves the house and goes to the seminary where Donna is being watched over by Vimal and the rather skeptical Sister Anne.

Anne does not believe in demonic possession and so when Liam arrives at the gates, Sister Anne ignores Vimal’s pleas not to and goes outside to tell Liam that he cannot see his daughter because he’d hit her and Anne would not allow him to have her back while she’s in danger.

After fruitlessly arguing his point with the Sister, Liam calls the police to report that the Priest abducted his daughter, but not before he shocks Anne to the core by revealing that he knows she beat her brother as a child for urinating in the bath. The shocked Sister is then confronted with the demons possessing Liam as he makes a snarling attempt to attack her through the bars of the gate.

The police arrive and hand over Donna to her mother who is angry that the Priest is giving credence to Donna’s story about her father being possessed. The police urge Donna’s mother not to let her out of her sight but still, she’s unwilling to give any credibility to Father Jacob and Sister Anne who warn her to ensure Liam cannot get near Donna.

After they’ve gone, Vimal explains to Father Jacob that when Mother Teresa was dying, she was attacked by demons and as the boy prayed for Mother Teresa as she passed away, once the demons realised they were thwarted in their attempt to possess her, they instead entered him. He believes that is why he is homosexual and it is why he feels unready to accept ordination into the church.

Jacob patiently explains that his sexuality isn’t the work of demons and that his miraculous recovery from leprosy wasn’t their work either. As Jacob and Vimal pray together, Cardinal Bukovak arrives to tell Jacob that his status as an exorcist is revoked following the incident involving Donna.

He is angered that Jacob insists that Liam is possessed when the Cardinal believes it is a simple case of child abuse, and insists that it is none of the church’s business.

He also tells Vimal that because the church is now aware of his homosexuality, he cannot continue to train for the priesthood. The Cardinal also orders that Jacob’s contact with Monsignor Vincenzo must cease however the Priest will not agree.

Vimal then leaves the seminary, despite Jacob’s pleading with him to fight the decision, and makes his way to a gay bar which he sees as a way to confront, and make peace with, his demons. As he’s sitting at the bar, Michael arrives and continues to taunt the young man and tells him that the church don’t want him, Father Jacob doesn’t want him and he should embrace his demons and stop fighting them.

Meanwhile, Monsignor Vincenzo arrives from Rome to tell Jacob that he must become Chief Exorcist because the demons will be victorious if he does not. At the same time, Donna’s mother is outside hanging washing when the phone rings. Donna answers it and is delighted to hear it’s her father. He convinces her that the exorcism worked and tells her he wants her to meet him so they can pray together but warns that she must not tell her mother he’s called or that they intend to meet, so Donna slips out of the house unseen to meet with Liam.

We next see Father Jacob and Monsignor Vincenzo arrive at Donna’s home as her mother is frantically searching for her. Once inside, Jacob manages to establish that Donna was conceived more or less the moment that Mother Teresa died, which, the Priest tells her, was love-making to celebrate the death of one of the holiest of women. He asks where Donna was conceived and realises that Liam’s demons have made him lure the child there in order to possess her soul too.

Back with Vimal, he’s visiting a gay sauna and is rejected by the first likely partner because of his deformed hand. Vimal has two fingers missing as a result of the leprosy but the next person he encounters is not concerned with his deformity…

In Kensington Gardens, Liam tells Donna that this is where she was conceived. As Liam talks to her, it becomes clear his demons have the better of him and Donna’s fear increases. Just as it seems Liam is going to ‘defile’ the girl, Father Jacob arrives and calls Donna to him before sending her running to her mother. Jacob and Vincenzo then begin an exorcism, with Liam trapped between them and unable to escape. The demons possessing him tell Jacob that they will make Vimal suffer and as they are forced to leave Liam’s body, the man who entered the sauna begins to do exactly that.

Vimal recognizes the man as Michael, the embodiment of the demons who have haunted him for so long, but as Vimal begs him to tell him what he wants from him, it becomes apparent that the demons have come to reclaim the skin they gave the young man.

Michael then literally skins Vimal and leaves his steaming and flayed corpse on the floor of the sauna, just as Liam recovers from the exorcism to realise the demons have left him.

Jacob smiles down at Liam and says, “It’s over” however, as Jacob is soon to learn, it’s anything but over… (BBC)

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I have to say, I had expected that the whole concept of this series might have been a bit hard to swallow, given that we are expected to believe that modern day Catholicism and the Priesthood in general are even entertaining the notion of demonic possession, but the fact is, the matter-of-fact portrayal of Jacob by Martin Shaw negated all that.

The acting was first class, the characters rounded and convincing and the special effects, spectacular. The scene where Vimal is skinned alive in the sauna was both nauseating and fascinating and a triumph of special effects.

The premise for the story rapidly becomes very easy to believe thanks to the portrayal of the key characters of Liam, Jacob, Vimal and Michael. Within about ten minutes of the programme starting last night, I lost all my reservations about thinking it was too fantastical to be believed and wholeheartedly bought into the plot.

It was riveting, thrilling and utterly convincing and I can’t wait for next week’s episode. It’s just a pity it’s a whole week away

I saw it ...it was good but gave me bloomin nightmares after..lol
I'll watch next weeks though !!!