Edge of Darkness is a 1985 British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International. Originally broadcast in six episodes in late 1985, it is part crime drama and political thriller, and revolves around the efforts of widowed policeman Ronald Craven (played by Bob Peck) to unravel the truth behind the killing of his daughter, Emma (played by Joanne Whalley). Craven's investigations soon lead him into a murky world of government and corporate cover-ups and nuclear espionage, pitting him against dark forces that threaten the future of life on Earth.

Writer Troy Kennedy Martin was greatly influenced by the political climate of the time, dominated by the Thatcher government, and the aura of secrecy surrounding the nuclear industry – and by the implications of the Gaia hypothesis of environmentalist James Lovelock; these combined to him writing a thriller that mingled real world concerns with mythic and mystical elements. Kennedy Martin's original ending was more fantastic than that eventually used in the finished serial: he had proposed that Craven would turn into a tree but this was vetoed by members of the cast and crew.

First broadcast on BBC2, Edge of Darkness was met with such widespread critical acclaim that within days it had earned a repeat screening on BBC1. Winner of several prestigious awards, it remains highly regarded, often cited as one of the best and most influential pieces of British television drama. 25 years later, a film remake was released, set in the United States, which was directed by the original series director Martin Campbell and starring Mel Gibson.

Plot

One: Compassionate Leave

Yorkshire police officer Ronald Craven is returning home with his daughter Emma having picked her up from a meeting of an environmental organisation at her university campus. On the doorstep of their home Emma is shot dead. The police concentrate their effort on the theory that her murder was a botched attempt on Craven's life by a criminal he had been responsible for convicting. However, as Craven goes through Emma's belongings, he discovers a geiger counter, a vibrator and a gun. He also learns that Emma's body and her possessions are radioactive. Travelling to London to assist with the inquiry, he is contacted by Pendleton, a polished official "attached to the Prime Minister's office", who informs him that Emma was known to them as a terrorist and that she may have been the gunman's target. (Aired 4 November 1985).

Two: Into The Shadows As he continues his investigations, Craven is visited by Emma's ghost. The fingerprints on the getaway car used by Emma's killer match those of Lowe, a man Craven arrested 10 years ago. Pendleton takes Craven to meet his colleague, Harcourt, who informs him that Emma was a member of a subversive anti-nuclear group called Gaia. A team of six Gaia members, led by Emma, had broken into a low level radioactive waste facility at Northmoor; all are now either dead or missing. After Craven makes a televised appeal for information about Emma's killer, he is contacted by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Darius Jedburgh, an associate of Harcourt and Pendleton. Jedburgh shows Craven the CIA's file on Emma's activities: Gaia had become suspicious of Northmoor when a nearby reservoir had become contaminated with radioactive material, an occurrence that had also alerted the CIA, leading them to believe Northmoor was illegally storing plutonium. Jedburgh is played as a hard-bitten professional with a wry sense of humour and a passion for both golf and watching ballroom dancing on television. Along with Harcourt and Pendleton, he is keen to find the source and purpose of the plutonium. (Aired 11 November 1985).

Three: Burden of Proof The police close in on their suspect, Lowe, who is severely injured in a fall while trying to escape. Dying, he tells Craven he was working with McCroon, a terrorist Craven had convicted in Northern Ireland. Emma's boyfriend, Terry Shields, tells Craven that she was investigating a hot cell in Northmoor; he is later killed. Craven meets Harcourt and Pendleton at the House of Commons. There, an inquiry is taking place into the sale of International Irradiated Fuels (IIF) at Northmoor, run by Robert Bennett to the Fusion Corporation of Kansas, owned by Jerry Grogan. Pendleton tells Craven that he believes Bennett was behind Emma's death. Returning to Yorkshire for Emma's funeral, Craven is refused permission to seek a warrant to enter Northmoor. Returning home, he is observed by McCroon. (Aired 18 November 1985).

Four: Breakthrough McCroon breaks into Craven's house intent on killing him. Craven demands that McCroon tell him for whom he is working but McCroon is shot by a police marksman before he can say anything. Through a contact of Mac (Struan Roger), a colleague from his time in Northern Ireland, Craven gains access to a terminal connected to the MI5 computer. He checks the MI5 records for Gaia, Northmoor and Emma and learns that McCroon was acting on the orders of Northmoor Security. He also obtains a three-dimensional map of Northmoor from the computer. Craven contacts Jedburgh and asks him to accompany him inside Northmoor. (Aired 25 November 1985).

Five: Northmoor Craven and Jedburgh penetrate Northmoor and discover the hot cell which has been sealed off following an explosion – a consequence of Gaia's attempted break-in. Jedburgh, under orders from the CIA, enters the hot cell and steals the plutonium. At the House of Commons inquiry, IIF chief executive Robert Bennett admits to the presence of plutonium at Northmoor. Further, he admits to deliberately causing the deaths by drowning of the Gaia team to prevent them from removing plutonium from the site. He justifies both the deaths, and the failure to report to any regulatory body, by stating that the plutonium was the property of the Ministry of Defence. (Aired 2 December 1985).

Six: Fusion Craven and Jedburgh escape Northmoor but both are dying from acute radiation syndrome. Jedburgh makes for the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, which is hosting a NATO conference on directed energy weapons.

In London, Harcourt advises his Minister that Northmoor has been illegally producing plutonium. The Minister counters that Northmoor was doing so for the Ministry of Defence via an experimental method and was therefore exempt from normal regulation, and that he had been aware since the start of the secret program. Harcourt's involvement was intended only as a deception to allay American suspicions.

Arriving late at the conference is Grogan, who announces that the British government has approved his company's purchase of IIF and speaks with cold passion of harnessing the power of the atom. The audience of military and civilian officials applauds but Jedburgh, in a U.S. Army uniform, takes the dais to denounce nuclear proliferation. He finishes by bringing together two bars of plutonium he has removed from Northmoor, causing a criticality and irradiating himself and the nearby Grogan.

Emma's ghost appears to Craven and tells him of a time when black flowers grew, warming the Earth and preventing life from becoming extinct. The black flowers have returned and will melt the polar icecaps, destroying mankind so that life can continue. Craven goes to dissuade Jedburgh from the next step in his plan, which is to cause a nuclear explosion in Scotland with the rest of the plutonium. He succeeds, though the secret service trace Craven's call to Pendleton alerting him to the location of the rest of the plutonium, and kill Jedburgh. The next morning Craven, who like Jedburgh and Grogan has been fatally exposed to radiation, watches from a ridge above a loch as the plutonium is recovered, before finally calling Emma's name. Grogan is dying from ARS. Later, on the mountains, as Emma predicted, black flowers are growing, foreshadowing the planet's defensive war against humanity. (Aired 9 December 1985).

Principal credits

Cast Ronald Craven was played by Bob Peck, an actor who was well known in theatre but, at the time he was cast as Craven, had appeared in only minor roles on television. In creating the role of Craven, Peck drew upon his experience gained from the two years he played the title role in Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Notable roles after Edge of Darkness included On the Black Hill (1987), Slipstream (1989), Natural Lies (1992) and Jurassic Park (1993). He died in 1999. Joanne Whalley, who played Emma Craven, began acting during childhood, first appearing in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street (1960–present) in 1974 at the age of 13, and eight years later had a small part in Alan Parker's music-drama Pink Floyd – The Wall. She had also appeared in supporting roles in several series including Juliet Bravo (1980–1985), Bergerac (1981–1991) and Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). Following Edge of Darkness, Whalley was cast in the equally well regarded BBC television serial The Singing Detective (1986), written by Dennis Potter. Moving to Hollywood, she appeared in such films as Willow (1988), Scandal (1989) and Shattered (1991) as well as television mini-series such as Scarlett (1994) and Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000). During her eight-year marriage to the actor Val Kilmer, between 1988 and 1996, she was often credited as Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. Cast as Darius Jedburgh was Joe Don Baker, who had been acting since the 1960s and was known for his roles in Westerns such as Gunsmoke (1955–1975) and as the lead in the detective series Eischied (1979–1980). He also starred as Sheriff Buford Pusser in the original 1972 film Walking Tall. The script of Edge of Darkness so impressed him that he agreed to take the part at lower than his usual fee.Pixley, Get It While It's Hot, p. 56. He was later cast, by Edge of Darkness director Martin Campbell, as CIA agent Jack Wade in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995), a role he reprised in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Baker died in May 2025.Joe Don Baker, Actor Who Found Fame With ‘Walking Tall,’ Dies at 89 Charles Kay, who played Pendleton, was a well established character actor who had appeared in Fall of Eagles (1974), I, Claudius (1976) and The Devil's Crown (1978). He has since acted in many television productions such as Fortunes of War (1989), The Darling Buds of May (1991–1993), Jonathan Creek (1997–2004) and Midsomer Murders (1998 and 2006). Kay died on 8 January 2025, at the age of 94. Edge of Darkness was an early role for Ian McNeice, who played Harcourt. He went on to act in a wide variety of film and television parts including The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain (1995), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), as well as regular roles in Doc Martin (2004–2022), Rome (2005–2007) and regular appearances as Winston Churchill in the BBC's revived Doctor Who.

Several other faces familiar to British viewers appeared during the course of the episodes, including John Woodvine (as Craven's superior DCS Ross), Tim McInnerny (as Emma's boyfriend Terry Shields), Hugh Fraser (as IIF chief executive Robert Bennett), Kenneth Nelson as Grogan, Zoë Wanamaker (as intelligence agent Clementine), Allan Cuthbertson (as Chilwell of the Investigation Committee) and Blake's 7 cast members David Jackson (as Colonel Lawson), Jack Watson as James Godbolt and Brian Croucher (as Northmoor security chief Connors). Playing themselves were television reporters Sue Cook and Kenneth Kendall, weatherman Bill Giles and Labour MP Michael Meacher. Long-standing BBC visual effects designer Mat Irvine, who contributed visual effects to the series, received a brief cameo as a police diver in "Breakthrough".

Crew