| Genre: | Thriller |
| Director: | Stephen Gallagher |
| Composer: | Alan Parker |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 3 |
| Executive Producer: | Brian Eastman |
| Editor: | Andrew McClelland |
| Cinematography: | Bruce McGowan |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Company: | Carnival Film & Television |
| Channel: | ITV |
Oktober is a three-part British television psychological thriller, written and directed by Stephen Gallagher, that first broadcast on ITV on 2 April 1998. Based upon Gallagher's 1988 novel of the same name,[1] the series stars Stephen Tompkinson as Jim Harper, a schoolteacher who finds himself drawn into an international conspiracy when a pharmaceutical company eyeball him to be the human guinea pig in a new, state-of-the-art medical trial.[2] [3]
Tompkinson told the Daily Mirror that he was keen to take on the more active role of Jim Harper, commenting; “I grabbed this project because I’d never been asked to do anything like this before, and the chance to do stunts was one reason it was so appealing. As soon as I read the script I knew there hadn’t been anything like this on British television for a very long time. It has elements of The 39 Steps running through it. It asks how an ordinary person manages to deal with a set of quite extraordinary events.”[4]
The series was released on Region 2 DVD on 24 May 2004.[2] A reprint of Gallagher's novel with Tompkinson on the cover art followed on 2 January 2018.[1]
The series was initially written for the BBC, but after they declined to commission the project, the series was offered to ITV, who chose to commission it the following year.[5] Whilst filming in the Swiss Alps, a number of crew members suffered from altitude sickness, which temporarily halted production.[3]
The series was intended for broadcast in February 1998, with a number of listings magazines including features on the series prior to broadcast; but due to changes in the ITV, the series did not transmit until early April.[3] The series has since been repeated on ITV2.[3]
| Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Original airdate |
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