Fallen Angel (2007 TV series)

Infobox Television
show_name = Fallen Angel


caption =
genre = Crime Drama
runtime =
creator =
developer =
producer =
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starring = Charles Dance,
Emilia Fox
theme_music_composer =
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country = UK
location =
language = English
network = ITV
first_aired = 11 March, 2007
last_aired =
13 March, 2007
num_series = 1
num_episodes = 3
list_episodes =
preceded_by =
imdb_id = 0939235

"Fallen Angel" is an ITV series broadcast on 11–13 March 2007 based on the Roth Trilogy of novels by Andrew Taylor.

Plot

"Fallen Angel" is the story of Rosie Byfield, a clergyman's daughter who grows up to be a psychopathic killer. It has a uniqueFact|date=March 2008 narrative that moves backwards in time as it uncovers the layers of Rosie's past.

The Four Last Things

The Four Last Things is set in 2007 North London when a young girl is kidnapped by a serial killer who calls herself Angela Wharton or 'Angel'. The show starts with the ordination of a female curate - Mary Appleton - as the first female curate in the fictitious diocese of Roslington. However, she is heckled by an old lady called Audrey Oliphant. Her carer, Angela Wharton, also appears in the background behind the altar. Her parents are sent on a wild goose chase after 'Angel' leaves a number of child's body parts around the city.

It is later revealed, by Wendy Appleton acting as narrator, that Angela was mainly taking advantage of Audrey. She is also taking advantage of a paedophile called Eddie, who she intends to blame for the child killings. After a dark secretvague of the kidnapped child's father, Michael Appleton, his past is revealed to his wife. He has a childhood "friend", Rosie, who was obsessed by a priest and heretic - Francis Youlgrave - who is obsessed with transubstantiation and supposedly ate the flesh and blood of orphaned children in the slums of North London. We then see a bizarre "black mass" service involving an altar. Rosie is then found and the child is returned safely. 'Angel' is locked in a mental institution.

The Judgement of Strangers

We go to 1987 when Angel (Rosie) is 16 and applying for university, in Roth, Middlesex (Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire) in 1987 starting with her exams finishing and her going to stay with her father, the parish priest only to find out he has been married. (Middlesex could well have been used as a metasyntactic name as the county of Middlesex is no longer used for administration). David Byefield wants to marry again, to a lady called Vanessa. Rose initially opposes the idea, but then changes her mind.

After the wedding, we meet Juliana and the local historian Audrey Oliphant, both of whom want to obtain documents concerning Francis Youlgrave - who lived at the local manor house - from their owner, Lady Youlgrave. Lady Youlgrave used to own the local manor, but she later sold it to some hippies because she was too old to properly maintain it. Having failed her exams 'Angel', whose real name is Rosie, takes out her anger on the young Michael who has come to stay with them.

After he sees her murdering her step-mother and attempting to destroy the documents concerning Francis Youlgreave, he tells his mother and Rosie disappears, after she threatens the whole family by screaming, "You will all suffer for this!" The next thing her father finds is that Rosie has apparently been killed in a car crash, of which an 'Angela Wharton' is the sole witness. Angela Wharton is actually another reincarnation of Rosie - see above.

The Office of the Dead

Now we go back to Rosie's childhood, when her father is a dean at Roslington Cathedral in 1973 (St Albans, Hertfordshire). After being constantly ignored by her father, Michael Byefield's mother Wendy comes to stay with the family. Wendy is breaking up with her husband and would like a divorce. Michael, however, is not yet born. Rosie has a close relationship with her grandfather, Hugh. Later in the episode, after hearing her senile grandfather shout, "I wish I was dead", she stabs him with a knife.

Her mother finds her next to the dead body with a knife and cleans her up. She then writes a suicide note telling everyone that it was she who killed the grandfather and that she could not bear to watch him suffer. She then kills herself.

No-one ever finds out about this until Rosie tells Wendy on a trip to an ice cream parlour run by Audrey Strickland. She tells Rosie never to mention it to anyone. She plans to tell Rosie's father but after seeing how much they love each other keeps the secret to herself. At the end of the film Wendy is shown pregnant with Michael - it is implied, but never stated, that David is really Michael's father.Fact|date=October 2007

External links

* [http://www.rothtrilogy.com author's site for The Roth Trilogy, the basis of Fallen Angel]
*imdb title|id=0939235|title=Fallen Angel