Chernobyl’s Jared Harris leads the cast of exclusive BritBox thriller The Beast Must Die. Find out about the release date, trailer, cast and filming locations.
4/5
Based on Cecil Day-Lewis s novel, this gothic crime drama draws fine performances from Jared Harris, Cush Jumbo and Billy Howle
27 May 2021 • 5:00am
Beastly: Cush Jumbo, Jared Harris and Billy Howle in BritBox s excellent first original drama
Credit: Scott Free/New Regency Television International
If aliens were to base their understanding of the human race on television dramas, they would conclude that at least 50 per cent of the population works in law enforcement.
The Beast Must Die is a drama featuring a detective with personal problems, not to be confused with Channel 4’s Before We Die, a drama featuring a detective with personal problems. If you only have room in your life for one of these, then The Beast Must Die is definitely the classier product.
In
The Beast Must Die, a TV series adapted from a dusty 1930s thriller by Nicholas Blake (AKA the poet Cecil Day-Lewis), Jared Harris plays a man who may, or may not, have knocked down a child while driving his sports car too fast around the Isle of Wight. A nouveau riche horror show in chinos and deck shoes, his character appears to have not a single redeeming feature: if you heard his booming, entitled voice at an airport check-in, you’d pray all the way to the gate not to find him in the seat next to yours. But on screen, it’s a different story. Harris is the greatest television actor of his generation. Every scene in which he appears is electrifying. Every one in which he doesn’t cries out for his return.
Cruella
Cruella de Vil – there’s a clue in the name. This is the origin story of the fur-loving, puppy-slaughtering villain from British novelist Dodie Smith’s The Hundred And One Dalmatians, which has been adapted for the screen several times.
Emma Stone (above) is Estella, an aspiring young fashion designer in punkish 1970s London before she becomes such a cruel devil. The film also stars Emma Thompson and Mark Strong
Emma Stone is Estella, an aspiring young fashion designer in punkish 1970s London before she becomes such a cruel devil. The film also stars Emma Thompson and Mark Strong and is directed by Craig Gillespie, who directed the great I, Tonya. Disney+, from Friday