The Last Enemy (TV series)

*The Last Enemy*
The Last Enemy
	Mystery
Written by	Peter Berry
Directed by	Iain B. MacDonald
Starring	Benedict Cumberbatch; Anamaria Marinca; Max Beesley; Robert Carlyle; Eva Birthistle; Geraldine James; Chipo Chung; Tom Fisher; James Lance; San Shella; David Harewood; Christopher Fulford; Paul Higgins; Nick Sidi
Composer	Magnus Fiennes
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producers	Patrick Irwin; Justin Thomson-Glover; Adrian Bate
Producers	Gub Neal, Rebecca Eaton (for WGBH)
Production locations	London, UK; Bucharest, Romania
Camera setup	John Hembrough
Running time	85 minutes (Episode 1); 60 minutes (Episodes 2–5)
Production companies	BOX TV Limited; WGBH Boston
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	17 February –; 16 March 2008

The Last Enemy is a five-part

BBC television drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and featuring Robert Carlyle and Max Beesley

. It first aired on 17 February 2008.

Plot

Set in a recognisable, near-future London beset by terrorism and illegal immigration, The Last Enemy features the introduction of "TIA" (Total Information Awareness), a centralised database that can be used to track and monitor anybody, effectively by putting all available government and corporate – i.e. credit card and bank activity, phone use, internet use, purchases, rentals, etc. – information in one place.

The story deals with a political cover-up centred on a sanctioned but secret medical experiment run amok with key members of the government trying desperately to hide all evidence of their experimental batch of vaccine that seems to be causing a deadly virus. The complex story unspools to reveal the moral, social and privacy concerns of this hypothetical TIA system in a post-7/7 world, including such control mechanisms familiar to both real life and science fiction as retinal scans, fingerprint identification and ubiquitous camera and cellphone surveillance footage.

The story is told through the eyes of a mathematical genius, Stephen Ezard, who is portrayed as a recluse showing some signs of

obsessive-compulsive disorder

. But the shy genius overcomes his own inhibitions to burrow into a highly compromised British government using his brilliance and their TIA system only to find himself ultimately trapped by the people he most trusts, and to learn he is a pawn in manipulative Security State machinations which take the people he most loves from him and compromise him forever.

Cast

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Ezard
Anamaria Marinca as Yasir Anwar
Max Beesley as Michael Ezard
Robert Carlyle as David Russell
Eva Birthistle as Eleanor Brooke
Geraldine James as Barbara Turney
David Harewood as Patrick Nye
Christopher Fulford as George Gibbon
Alina Serban
as Nadir Al-Fulani
Paul Higgins as Professor Lawrence Cooper
Nicholas Sidi
as Professor John Moreton
David Calder as Lord Cawston
James Lance as Bryan Holland
San Shella as Andrew Wilcox
Nikki Amuka-Bird as Susan Ross

Viewing figures

Episode number	Original airing	Total viewers	Audience share (average)	Season viewer average
1	17 February 2008	4.2m^[1]	18%	2.7m
2	24 February 2008	2.5m^[2]	10%
3	2 March 2008	2.3m^[3]	9.4%
4	9 March 2008	2.5m^[4]	10%
5	16 March 2008	2m^[5]	8%

Distribution

The Last Enemy aired in the United States on PBS stations on Masterpiece Contemporary.
In
ABC1 (the national public television channel) from 8:30pm on 19 July 2009^[6] and concluded on 16 August 2009.^[7]

The Last Enemy aired on

TVO

in Ontario, Canada from 9:00 pm on 1–29 April 2009

The Last Enemy aired weekly in Denmark on DR1 from 10:45 pm on 26 January 2012.
The Last Enemy is available on Amazon Prime Video and on YouTube. As of 2020, it is available on the
Britbox
in the UK.

References

^ Holmwood, Leigh (18 February 2008). "TV ratings – February 18: Kingdom reigns over The Last Enemy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ Holmwood, Leigh (25 February 2008). "TV ratings – February 24: To see you nice, say Brucie's 6.5 million". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ Esposito, Maria (3 March 2008). "TV ratings – March 2: Lewis beats BBC enemy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ Holmwood, Leigh (10 March 2008). "TV ratings – March 9: ITV1 hits 9.6m Sunday peak". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ Holmwood, Leigh (17 March 2008). "TV ratings – March 16: Dancing on Ice final wins for ITV". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
^ "ABC1 TV Guide Program Information". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
^ "ABC1 TV Guide Program Information". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

External links

[1] Holmwood, Leigh (18 February 2008). "TV ratings – February 18: Kingdom reigns over The Last Enemy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

[2] Holmwood, Leigh (25 February 2008). "TV ratings – February 24: To see you nice, say Brucie's 6.5 million". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

[3] Esposito, Maria (3 March 2008). "TV ratings – March 2: Lewis beats BBC enemy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

[4] Holmwood, Leigh (10 March 2008). "TV ratings – March 9: ITV1 hits 9.6m Sunday peak". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

[5] Holmwood, Leigh (17 March 2008). "TV ratings – March 16: Dancing on Ice final wins for ITV". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

[6] "ABC1 TV Guide Program Information". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

[7] "ABC1 TV Guide Program Information". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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