Omschrijving

Midwinter of spirit. S01e01. Thriller. Creepy.

Ten minutes into the first episode of Midwinter of the Spirit (ITV), already gripped by its unusual blend of crime drama and the supernatural, I was thinking it’s a wonder that no one has adapted Phil Rickman’s books for television before now. He’s hardly a household name but ever since 1998 his wonderfully original series of novels featuring Merrily Watkins, an Anglican vicar distinguished by being not only a widowed single mother but also a “deliverance minister” (or, in crude terms, an exorcist), have been favourites of both the crime and horror cognoscenti.
In this surprisingly faithful adaptation, by Stephen Volk, it was easy to see why. For one thing Midwinter of the Spirit managed to be exceptionally creepy without ever venturing beyond the bounds of the credible, let alone (apart from an ill-judged and overcooked opening sequence) into the gory.
Merrily Watkins (Anna Maxwell Martin) proved, despite her intriguing job title, to be an appealingly ordinary heroine forced to confront the sorts of evils regularly encountered in other cop dramas, but coming at it from a wholly different perspective – that of a woman of faith.