Century Falls: Episode 1

 "If you were born outside Century Falls, you're always an outsider!"

Yes indeed, this is a local village for local people.

I've been wishing to watch this early kids' drama by Russell T. Davies for years. It's very different from Dark Season, but feels very much in the lineage of a certain type of childrens' telefantasy. We have the Falls themselves, a mysterios temple that burned down forty years ago despite being made of stone- are these suspicious villagers pagan? Have Tess and her pregnant mother stumbled into The Wicker Man?

The characterisation, and the dialogue, are brilliantly RTD. Tess and her mum seem very real in comparison to the otherworldly villagers and those strange kids, Carey and the disturbingly odd Ben, a complex figure, with bullying tendencies and hidden depths, seemingly feared even my hos despairing father.

So many secrets and subplots are developing already, yet it's all very easy to follow. This is all rather intriguing.