📺 Jekyll and Hyde (2015)
Based on novel
ITV’s 2015 drama series Jekyll and Hyde takes Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1886 novella into the 1930s for a rollicking, action-heavy reimagining. Created by Charlie Higson (best known for The Fast Show and the Young Bond novels), the ten-part series follows Dr. Robert Jekyll, the mixed-race grandson of the original Henry Jekyll, who has inherited both his grandfather’s medical genius and the monstrous Hyde persona. The story opens in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) before whisking the protagonist to London to claim an inheritance, where he becomes entangled with the secret government agency MIO and a host of supernatural threats.
Tom Bateman stars as the conflicted Dr. Robert Jekyll, with Richard E. Grant as the scheming Sir Roger Bulstrode and Natalie Gumede as Bella. The series is notably one of the first British dramas to feature a black male lead in a major fantasy-adventure role, a point Higson consciously included to reflect the more diverse reality of 1930s London. The tone blends gothic horror with period adventure, and Hyde’s transformations are depicted as a raging, super-strong force that proves both a blessing and a curse.
Despite decent ratings and a cliffhanger ending, ITV chose not to commission a second series. Reviews were mixed, with praise for its ambition and visual flair but criticism for an uneven tone and rushed plotting. It remains a distinctive entry in the long line of Stevenson adaptations, remembered for its bold recontextualization of a Victorian horror tale into a pulpy, globe-trotting 20th-century saga.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an 1886 Gothic horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend, the respected Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde. Through a series of discoveries, Utterson learns that Jekyll and Hyde are, in fact, the same person — the result of a scientific experiment that allows Jekyll to transform into a separate personality embodying his darker impulses.
The story originated from Stevenson's long-standing fascination with the duality of human nature, inspired in part by the double life of Edinburgh deacon William Brodie, as well as the murder trial of Eugène Chantrelle, a French teacher who secretly poisoned his wife. Written during a six-day period of intense creative activity (though later rewritten), the novella quickly became a sensation upon publication.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is now one of the most famous works of English literature and a defining book of the Gothic horror genre. Its central concept of a split personality has had an enormous influence on popular culture, with the phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” entering the vernacular to describe someone with an outwardly good but shockingly evil alter ego.
