Originally airing on the UK's Sky TV, Bedlam, a supernatural drama set in a haunted insane asylum-turned apartment building, will make its domestic debut in October as part of BBC America's Supernatural Saturdays. Uinterview sat down with star Theo James and one of the serie's creators, David Allison, to discuss the sexy and scary new show.
Q: Of late, it seems that the place to go for really good, hard genre TV is the UK. Why is that?
A: Allison: [Co-creator] Neil Jones and I were actually pitching a different project a few years ago, which was also a kind of genre show, and no one would touch it. And I think it’s really interesting how that’s changed. I mean, obviously the big thing is Doctor Who because it’s become such a phenomenon in the UK. It’s a juggernaut. You cannot underestimate how huge it is. And I think the success of Being Human is really a game-changer, as well. It’s ridiculous, really, because we have such a rich history of sci-fi in Britain. I mean a huge and incredible history. I don’t know why [sci-fi] fell off the radar for a while. We’re really excited, and I feel like hopefully we’re a part of the whole revival. It's also wonderful coming to America as part of Supernatural Saturdays, when we’re going out. It’s a prime-time slot, and that’s fantastic for us. It doesn’t feel like a lonely place anymore, with all this going on. We have such a rich history of storytelling to draw from that kind of genre, so it feels right that we should be doing it.
Q: What was the genesis of the idea?
A: Allison: It was originally four of us, but in the end there were three, and we actually just locked ourselves in a room in a hotel for like a weekend...
James: One room?
Allison: Well, a conference room.
James: One single bed... [laughs] Allison: Your mind, honestly. It was a conference room. We had coffee and biscuits. And we just knocked around, and we all came with two ideas each, and we pitched them all to each other. The idea by Neil Jones, who pitched Bedlam, was the one that really stood out. When you have an idea like that, you always wonder why someone hasn’t had it before. And it’s interesting, though, because throughout its entire genesis, it hasn’t really changed in terms of what it is. You can pitch it now, and it hasn’t really changed. Also, we were all really involved, and we didn’t even really know how to do the teamwork thing. It was kind of new to us, but I think it benefited so much from being three people’s baby, and not one person. Definitely.
