Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Merlin star Colin Morgan on his latest supernatural drama The Living and the Dead

Colin Morgan in The Living and the Dead (PA Photo/BBC/Robert Viglasky)
Colin Morgan in The Living and the Dead (PA Photo/BBC/Robert Viglasky)

FOR five years Colin Morgan was used to spooky goings-on playing the title role in Saturday teatime favourite Merlin.

But the supernatural events he’s facing in his new BBC drama are altogether more serious.

The Living and the Dead is the ghostly six-part series which starts this week.

He plays pioneering Victorian psychologist Nathan Appleby who moves back to the family estate in 1890s Somerset with wife Charlotte after the death of his mother.

But Nathan then finds himself faced with one disturbing case after another.

“He has been educated his whole life to believe that aspects of the supernatural are aspects of the mind, they are delusions that can be very much explained scientifically,” explains Colin, 30.

“To start to see things that challenge that belief is very, very unsettling for him.

“Nathan begins to experience things both through the locals and himself that put him to the test and force him to really tread the line between the scientific and the supernatural.

“When more and more people are coming to him, and he starts experiencing things himself, he becomes obsessed.

“It digs up his demons and one of them is his dead son Gabriel.”

The series certainly has an impressive pedigree, having been penned by the creator of Life on Mars Ashley Pharaoh.

But though it’s an unsettling watch, Northern Irish star Colin says it wasn’t a gruelling job.

“It is a dark series and it was a very challenging but fun shoot,” he adds.

“We were lucky to be working with such fantastic scripts.”

The Living and the Dead Tuesday, 9pm BBC1


READ MORE

BBC2’s saucy Versailles series owes its success to attention to detail

Game of Thrones star Peter Vaughan is still best known for being Porridge’s Grouty