TOWN OF TERROR

Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley star in a spinechilling new version of The Midwich Cuckoos

- SEAN MARLAND

NEW SCI-FI

The Midwich Cuckoos

Hol Thu, 9pm, Sky Max & Sky Showcase (box set, Sky Box Sets & NOW)

John Wyndham's sinister 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos has been sending shivers down the spines of readers for decades and now, Sky is bringing the chilling sci-fi tale to our screens.

Updated to the present day, the seven-part series is set in the affluent commuter town of Midwich, which is plunged into panic one summer's evening when a freak electrical blackout knocks everyone unconscious.

For 12 hours, no phones work, while no one can get in or out of the town. And when things return to normal, it gradually becomes clear that every woman of childbearing age in Midwich has suddenly and inexplicably become pregnant.

One woman who escapes this fate is Dr Susannah Zellaby, a successful psychotherapist who was in London on the evening in question, and who returns to find her community struggling to cope with its bizarre new reality.

‘Each woman faces her own dilemma,’ says Keeley Hawes, who plays Dr Zellaby. ‘Some of them never wanted to be pregnant, whereas some are thrilled at the news. There are girls in school uniforms as young as 15 right up to women in their 40s, so they’re all at different stages in their lives.’

While Dr Zellaby is unaffected by the sinister phenomenon, her troubled 23-year-old daughter Cassie isn’t so fortunate. Faced with the prospect of having a child she never expected, she turns to her mother for guidance – as do many other women in Midwich.

NEW APPROACH