In the Flesh (TV series)

Premise

Cast

• Luke Newberry as Kieren "Kier" or "Ren" Walker, the protagonist of the series who is one of the many formerly rabid zombies who have been rehabilitated, and has since returned to his parents' home in the village of Roarton. A bout of depression over the loss of his best friend and romantic interest, Rick Macy, caused the 18-year-old Kieren to commit suicide. Upon his return, he is faced with the guilt of his suicide and the murders he committed whilst in his rabid state and those by his sister who now belongs to a militia dedicated to hunting down other PDS sufferers. Kieren tends to stay at home and avoid others to prevent being recognised as a "rotter". Over series two, Kieren gradually grows more confident both in his sexuality and in his status as a PDS sufferer, and starts a romantic relationship with Simon Monroe.
• Emily Bevan as Amy Dyer, a PDS sufferer who died of leukaemia at age 21. She meets and befriends Kieren and tries to convince him that their condition is a blessing. She is unaffected by her actions when she was rabid and believes that most people spend their lives waiting to die. In the second series she gradually becomes living again for reasons yet to be revealed, only to be murdered by Maxine Martin, who received intelligence to suggest Amy was the first individual to come back to life during the Rising.
• Harriet Cains as Jemima "Jem" Walker, Kieren Walker's sister and a member of the local militia, the Human Volunteer Force. She has trouble accepting Kieren's return but still seems to care for her brother. She was especially troubled by Kieren's death as they were extremely close.
• Marie Critchley and Steve Cooper as Sue and Steve Walker, parents of Kieren and Jemima Walker.
• Emmett J Scanlan as the charismatic Simon Monroe who has links with the Undead Liberation Army as well as being one of the twelve disciples of the mysterious Undead Prophet. Simon is the first undead upon whom the PDS treatment "neurotriptaline" had any effect, and, after his success led to the successful development of the drug, became one of the very first undead persons to be rehabilitated, shortly after the invention of the term "PDS". After being disowned by his father, having killed his own mother in a rabid state, Simon finds a sense of community in the group of radicalised undead who adhere to the teachings of the Undead Prophet, which eventually comes to form the ULA. When he arrives in Roarton in search of the so-called "First Risen", he appears to be in a relationship with Amy, but later it becomes clear he is not interested in Amy and has merely allowed her to assume they are together. Over the course of series two, his attraction to Kieren grows into a strong romantic attachment, enough for him to place Kieren's wellbeing ahead of the wishes of the Undead Prophet, to whom he had long been devoted.
• Stephen Thompson as councillor Philip Wilson who later gets into trouble when he announces his romantic affection for certain PDS sufferers and, as a consequence, greatly diminishes his chances of climbing the political ladder. He later reveals his feelings for Amy Dyer at the village bus stop and they subsequently begin a relationship.
• Wunmi Mosaku as Maxine Martin, the honourable Victus MP for Roarton. Like members of her party, she does not consider PDS sufferers to be real people, and takes great delight in implementing aggressive new government policies which treat PDS sufferers as second class citizens. She also brings back the defunct Human Volunteer Force under a new name, the Roarton Protection Service, and stirs up once again the anti-PDS hysteria which Roarton had previously been under. Secretly, she has been studying the mythology of the Undead Prophet and has bought into its idea of a Second Rising. Having heard the prophecies of the ULA, she hunts for the First Risen, in the hope to slay him or her and trigger a Second Rising which will restore to life her brother, who died as a young child.
• Kevin Sutton as Gary Kendall, second-in-command and later Commanding Officer of the HVF Roarton village unit following the death of Bill Macy. Later, he heads up the RPS for Maxine Martin, and develops a romantic connection to Jem. After attempting to induce Kieren to an untreated state, in the unsuccessful hope that a rabid Kieren will be executed by Jem, Jem terminates their relationship.
• Gerard Thompson as Dean Halton or "Daz", an active member of the HVF. In addition to his position in the HVF, he later becomes second-in-command and in some ways Co-Captain of the RPS after its establishment.
• Ricky Tomlinson as Ken Burton, a local man who initially appears to dislike those with PDS but this turns out to be only a façade, part of his vain attempt to hide the fact that his wife is a PDS sufferer. His failure to keep this concealed eventually leads to her death at the hands of Bill Macy. At the start of the second series he has moved to the city, only to be killed in a ULA attack on a train.
• Kenneth Cranham as the widowed Vicar Oddie who runs the parish church and known well across the parish itself. He dies in the second episode of series two when he suffers a heart attack.
• Steve Evets as Bill Macy, the head of the HVF. He is Rick's father and husband of Janet. Bill learned of his son's romantic relationship with Kieren and forced him to enlist in the army to separate them. In the greatest sense of irony, Bill was indirectly responsible for both Rick and Kieran's deaths. During the "Pale Wars" he destroyed many "rotters" but when his son returns with PDS he cannot accept it and treats him as if he were still fully alive. Bill is forced to confront his feelings over having sent his son to his death, his son's same-sex romance and his son's return with PDS.
• Karen Henthorn as Janet Macy, Bill's wife and Rick's mother. She is very accepting of Rick's return and tries to convince her husband that Rick really has PDS and that his return albeit far from ideal is a blessing.
• David Walmsley as Rick Macy, Kieren's best friend and romantic interest, a young soldier who was killed by an IED during combat in Afghanistan, and whose reanimated body was recovered by the army relatively recently. His return is a surprise both to Kieran, and to his mother and father; his father, an anti-PDS extremist, is particularly unable to cope with his son becoming a PDS sufferer.
• Steve Garti as Duncan Lancaster
• Sandra Huggett as Shirley Wilson
• Eve Gordon as Frankie King
• Jack North as Rob Carnforth
• Charlie Kenyon as Henry Lonsdale
• Paul Warriner as Dr. Tom Russo
• Bryan Parry as Freddie Preston
• Francis Magee as Iain Monroe
• Steven Robertson as John Weston
• Sue Wallace as Maggie Burton
• Linzey Cocker as Haley Preston
• Harry Gawler as Man looking round house.

  Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

Reception

Awards