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| FALLEN
ANGEL - STORY DETAILS AND CAST |
FILM
ONE : THE FOUR LAST THINGS
Setting: Present Day London
It is Easter and newly ordained vicar Sally (Claudie Blakely) is giving
her first sermon. There in support are her husband Michael (Oliver
Dimsdale), five-year-old daughter Lucy (Jade Sharif) and mother-in-law
Wendy (Clare Holman).
Juxtaposed against this happy family unit we see a beautiful, but very
disturbed woman known as Angel (Emilia Fox), and her needy, inadequate
housemate Eddie (Mark Benton) plan the abduction of Lucy. They have
taken children many times before but this time Eddie doesn’t realise
that there is a dark secret that drives Angel to kidnap the child of a
policeman. |
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After
Lucy is abducted, the family faces an agonising wait, until remains of
children are discovered in three locations across the city. But each
distressing find turns out to be unrelated to Lucy. The oddly specific
places chosen by the killer present a puzzle, pointing to a chilling
story from the past… involving some kind of religious mania and a
recurring figure from history, one Francis Youlgreave.
Will the family find Lucy in a fourth, as yet hidden location before it
is too late? In a race against time, these clues are agonisingly pieced
together by Michael's mother Wendy – who is narrating the story - and
his godfather David (Charles Dance), a retired priest. The abduction is
a bitter, distorted attack on Michael and David, linked to the religion
which David has given his life to, and which Wendy has reason to resent
bitterly…
When Eddie learns the terrifying truth about Angel, her past and her
future intentions, he overcomes his cowardice and saves Lucy's life.
FILM TWO: THE JUDGEMENT OF STRANGERS
Setting: Roth, a town in outer London. 1991.
Rosemary, known as Angel in Film One, (Emilia Fox) is now a pretty
teenager living alone with the father she adores, David (Charles Dance)
now Parish priest in the village of Roth. Home for the Easter holidays,
Rosemary’s world starts to fall apart when she discovers that her
widower father is engaged to be married to Vanessa (Niamh Cusack), a
publisher and would be author. Rosemary is immediately set against
Vanessa, but David fatally misses the signs, in this and all other
matters relating to his daughter. David narrates this episode and admits
he was blind to her faults, and blinded by his own narcissism and self
absorption.
Family friend Wendy (Clare Holman) has to leave her now 12-year old son,
Michael (Greg Sheffield) to stay with his godfather, David while she is
away on a second honeymoon. Vanessa meanwhile begins writing a book
about a previous vicar of Roth, one Frances Youlgreave – turn of the
century poet, opium addict and suspected child killer. His macabre story
has a great effect on the impressionable Rosemary – details of his
most famous poem ‘Death and Judgement, Heaven and Hell’ help to
explain the kidnaps and clues left in Film One.
The unearthing of the Youlgreave history takes hold of the whole
community, driving Vanessa away from David and focussing David’s
sexual obsessions on his neighbour, Joanna Clifford (Cara Horgan), who
has moved into the former Youlgreave family seat, Roth House, with her
brother Toby (James D’Arcy).
Michael is blamed for mock re-enactments of Youlgreave’s rituals, and
David’s suspicious response only serves to heighten Rosemary’s
troubled state of mind. Ignored, yet craving attention from her father,
Rosemary turns to Toby Clifford for affection. Rosemary blames all the
changes in her life on Vanessa so when the flirtatious Toby pays her
stepmother some flattering attention, inflamed by jealousy, Rosemary’s
grip on sanity is lost - and Vanessa is her next victim.
FILM THREE : THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD
Setting: Rosington. A cathedral town. 1979. Twelve years earlier.
Janet (Emma Fielding) lives with her husband David (Charles Dance), a
priest, and their daughter, five-year-old Rosemary (Tigerlily
Hutchinson). It seems idyllic, but Janet’s best friend, Wendy (Clare
Holman), running away from her own marriage, is quick to see the
marriage and family are under increasing strain.
David emotionally neglects his wife and his daughter, increasingly
caught up in his ambitions within the Cathedral hierarchy. Janet is very
delicate and at times unable to cope with the precocious Rosie and her
own father (Patrick Godfrey), who is teetering on the borders of
dementia. Rosemary forms the close bond with her grandfather she cannot
find with her father.
Wendy’s impression of little Rosie is that she’s trying and failing
to get her father’s attention. So, even at five, she is
over-fascinated with the morbid aspects and imagery of the religion her
father preaches.
No-nonsense and kindly Wendy, trying to be a surrogate parent to Rosie,
whilst longing for a child of her own, allows herself to be manipulated
when she indulges the birthday girl’s wish by making Rosie her very
own ‘Angel’. The doll and Rosie become inseparable. Many years
later, Wendy will remember that first ‘Angel’…
The impressive cathedral which forms the backdrop for this film, carved
with avenging angels and images of sacrifice, is where the village of
Roth’s famous vicar Frances Youlgreave was once ordained – it is as
if David spends his life following in this infamous clergyman’s
religious career path.
Taking part-time work in the cathedral library, Wendy stumbles on the
first clues to the disgraced Youlgreave, uncovering reference to
‘missing children’ and sacrifice.
Fatally diverting her from Janet’s home front, Wendy digs deeper into
that history, which takes her to London and towards a rapprochement with
her husband Henry (Peter Capaldi). But at what cost?
After a series of bizarre and increasingly disturbing macabre incidents
that Wendy connects to the little girl and her grandfather, the old man
is found dead in his bed.
Wendy and David assume it is suicide, but the police start to suspect
foul play... Janet is then found dead - in her suicide note, she has
taken the blame for her father’s death.
Finally Wendy discovers the darkest secret of all ... and who could
blame her for concealing it?
Cast
& Characters
FILM
ONE : THE FOUR LAST THINGS
David Byfield: Charles Dance
Angel/Rosie: Emilia Fox
Wendy Appleton: Clare Holman
Eddie Grey: Mark Benton
Michael Appleton: Oliver Dimsdale
Sally Appleton: Claudie Blakely
Lucy Appleton: Jade Sharif
Audrey Oliphant: Barbara Wilshere
FILM TWO: THE JUDGEMENT OF STRANGERS
Vanessa Byfield: Niamh Cusack
Toby Clifford: James D’Arcy
Joanna Clifford: Cara Horgan
Lady Youlgreave: Sheila Hancock
Henry Appleton: Peter Capaldi
Young Michael Appleton: Greg Sheffield
FILM THREE : THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD
Young Rosie Byfield: Tigerlily Hutchinson
Janet Byfield: Emma Fielding
Hugh Treevor: Patrick Godfrey
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