| Genre: | |
| Creator: | Paul Tomalin |
| Composer: | Jon Opstad[1] |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Num Episodes: | 8 |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Susie Liggat |
| Cinematography: | Joel Devlin |
| Location: | Versa Studios, Leeds, United Kingdom[2] |
| Editor: | Johannes Hubrich |
| Company: | Moonage Pictures |
| Network: | Netflix |
Bodies is a British Science fiction mystery thriller television miniseries primarily written and created for Netflix by Paul Tomalin and directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner and Haolu Wang. It is based on the 2014-15 DC Vertigo graphic novel of the same name, written by Si Spencer and illustrated by Dean Ormston, Tula Lotay, Meghan Hetrick and Phil Winslade. The series consists of eight episodes and premiered on Netflix on 19 October 2023.[3] [4]
The story starts with the appearance of a dead body in Longharvest Lane in the Whitechapel area of London. This event happens in the same location in four years – 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053 – and leads to four investigations by Metropolitan Police detectives that eventually become interlinked, with far-reaching consequences.[5]
| Character | 1890 | 1941 | 2023 | 2053 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DS Karl 'Charles Whiteman' Weissman | Jacob Fortune-Lloyd | colspan="2" | ||
| DS Shahara Hasan | Amaka Okafor | |||
| DI Alfred Hillinghead | Kyle Soller | colspan="3" | ||
| DC Iris Maplewood | Shira Haas | |||
| Lady Polly (Hillinghead) Harker | Synnøve Karlsen | Greta Scacchi | colspan="2" | |
| The body / Professor Gabriel Defoe | Tom Mothersdale | |||
| DCI Daniel Barber | Michael Jibson | |||
| Elias Mannix | Gabriel Howell | Stephen Graham | ||
| Sir Julian Harker | Stephen Graham | colspan="2" | ||
| DCI Calloway | Derek Riddell | colspan="2" | ||
| Henry Ashe | George Parker | colspan="3" | ||
| Charlotte Hillinghead | Amy Manson | colspan="3" | ||
| Commissioner Hayden Harker | Michael Shaeffer | colspan="2" | ||
| DI Farrell | Jonny Coyne | colspan="2" | ||
| Maggie | Alexandra Roach | |||
| Andrew Morley | Mark Lewis Jones | |||
| Elaine Morley | Kate Ashfield | |||
| Lady Agatha Harker | Anna Calder-Marshall | colspan="3" | ||
| Sarah Mannix | Natalie Gavin | |||
| DI Bothroyd | Kae Alexander | |||
The series was announced in February 2022 with Paul Tomalin set as creator and executive producer. Moonage Pictures was set to produce. Danusia Samal also serves as a writer.[6]
In July 2022, Shira Haas, Stephen Graham, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Kyle Soller, and Amaka Okafor were cast.[7]
Filming began on 16 May 2022.[8] Joel Devlin serves as the cinematographer. Many scenes were filmed in the 'Old Town' of Kingston upon Hull, making use of the Victorian buildings in Hull's city centre; others were filmed on board Hornblower Cruises' boats in York and at the City Cruises Boatyard in York. Harker's home is Wilberforce House on High Street, Hull.[9] Many of the futuristic scenes were filmed at the University of Leeds and at Sheffield's Little Kelham and Park Hill developments.[10] Scenes in the fictional Longharvest Lane were filmed at Wentworth Woodhouse, near a minor side entrance in the northwest corner of the house, a section normally unseen by the public.[11] The series was completed on 21 October 2022.
The Irish Independent notes a recurrence of motifs, words (such as 'Know you are loved') and names (such as 'Harker' and 'Mannix'), akin to the 2012 film Cloud Atlas.[12]