Abstract
ABSTRACT This article conducts an analysis of the BBC/BBC America supernatural drama The Living and the Dead, which ran for six episodes in 2016. It considers the drama’s association with traditions of uncanny television, and its use of ahistorical objects and artefacts to construct its unique aesthetic. The mutual haunting between main character Nathan (Colin Morgan) in the nineteenth century and his twenty-first century descendant Lara (Chloe Pirrie) is shown to allow the series to pursue a complex engagement with the past. Nathan’s grief over the death of his young son informs his endeavours to understand the supernatural occurrences in the fictional Shepzoy village, leaving him caught between his individual trauma and responsibilities to the community. The drama’s media archaeology is established through its depiction of historical objects and the construction of archival material, most prominent in the motif of photography. The digital recordings of Lara’s iPad in the twenty-first century are compared with the objects of the past and connected to the series’ own mise-en-scène. The end of the series reveals the importance of these artefacts’ appearances across time, the mutual haunting between generations allowing the narrative to reach a resolution.
Published Version
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