Edge of Darkness

Martin Campbell directed the 1985 BBC2 serial himself, 6 episodes, and 25 years later carried it to the cinema, moving the story from Yorkshire to Boston. His reason: Boston has an English and Irish signature on it. The centre of gravity moved too. In the serial Emma was in an anti nuclear group called Gaia and Northmoor was hiding plutonium illegally. In the film Northmoor is a defence contractor building warheads to foreign designs, so their use could be pinned on other countries. The dead daughter appearing to her father survives in both. Robert De Niro was cast as Jedburgh and left shortly after shooting began, his publicist citing creative differences. The part went to Ray Winstone, and the character turned from the serial’s CIA man into an English private fixer. The score was written twice. John Corigliano’s music was recorded and dubbed in before being dropped in post production for Howard Shore’s. Filming reached past Boston. The ashes are scattered at Rockport, parts were shot around Northampton, and a Cold War bunker near Amherst stood in for the Northmoor entrance. A good fit if you want to see what a serial loses and gains when compressed into one feature. Not for anyone who came for the nuclear politics of 1985; here it is a contractor and a private reckoning.