The Rapture

Set during a heatwave, The Rapture is a high-stakes thriller that crackles with wit and danger.

After a life-altering car accident killed her husband and left her paralysed, psychologist Dr Gabs Fox (Ruth Madeley – Years and Years, Then Barbara Met Alan, The War Between the Land and the Sea) starts a new job at a psychiatric hospital where she is assigned 17-year-old inmate Bethany Krall (India Amarteifio – Queen Charlotte, The Midwich Cuckoos).

Two years before, Bethany was sectioned for the brutal murder of her mother, Carys Krall. The case shocked the nation, not least because Bethany’s father, Leonard Krall (Sam Hazeldine – The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power, Slow Horses), is the charismatic leader of the Faith Way, a spiritual movement with millions of online followers.

Bethany seems to know private details about Gabs’ life and insists she can see visions of the future, which she communicates through disturbing sketches of disasters: storms, fires and floods. Bethany’s nurse Rafiq insists Bethany’s predictions always come true, but Gabs is sceptical, determined to find a clinical explanation.

As the heat intensifies, Gabs begins to notice unsettling connections between Bethany’s prophetic drawings and the world outside, forcing Gabs to re-examine her assumptions. Could Bethany be innocent after all? If she didn’t kill Carys Krall, who did and why?

With the help of journalist Dick Carwyn (Iwan Rheon - Those About to Die, Game of Thrones) and engineer Frasier Melville (Jack Farthing – Industry, Rain Dogs), Gabs digs deeper into the history of the Kralls. As she falls further down the rabbit hole, Gabs is forced to question – is Bethany telling the truth, or is she being manipulated by a deeply troubled teenager?

Filmed in Wales, the series is written by award-winning performance artist, playwright and screenwriter Bryony Kimmings (Last Christmas, Bogwitch) and Rebecca Manley (Berlin Noir) and directed by Eva Sigurđardóttir (Little Disasters, Domino Day) and Jennifer Perrott (Rain Dogs, Gentleman Jack).

Watch The Rapture on BBC iPlayer from Sunday 26th July and find out more from screenwriter Bryony Kimmings below

Why did you want to be involved with The Rapture?

The book really spoke to me - the idea of two unlikely reluctant heroes. Two people with a lot of their own problems really not wanting to be called into action. That felt interesting, the fact they were women with huge mental loads that ALSO needed to help with the planet, that felt real and true to my own story. That is fresh. The hard not heroic fodder that’s reality. That’s honest.

Do you recall how you felt upon the first reading of Liz Jensen’s book?

I felt very excited by the way the women spoke to one another. Like real people. Like I do with my mates. Taking the p*ss, being rude, criticising, sometimes manipulating but also loving and supporting. The characters felt full and real. I loved Liz’s concept too. It felt fresh and new. And we need new stories around the climate. Lots of them and quick. Ones that are relatable, not dystopian hellscapes. This presented that.

How does your script differ from the book – in terms of the overall story, characters etc

The book leads towards a large disaster, whilst our show isn’t doing that. I decided to make the disaster more of an emotional and internal one. We moved from solving a tidal wave to investigating a potential miscarriage of justice. Again, simply because we know 17 years later after the book came out what the cost to the systems of the earth are if we continue with our growth and our extraction.

And how do you think it now resonates with a modern audience?

I think it couldn't be more pressing to find new ways to talk about the climate crisis, the oil crisis, the ecological crisis in ways that aren't our old ways. This is an example of how to do it differently; with humour and love and some politics strapped in, but not rammed down your throat or trying to make you angry. The modern audience need some kindness and solutions... not dystopias and loads of information about how it’s too late. Because it isn't. I think it has some mirrors to modern life and the questions we all need to be asking ourselves. Hopefully it will feel fresh and new. 

Can you introduce the lead characters – Dr Gabrielle Fox and Bethany Krall?

Gabs is a psychologist who is just back at work after a car accident that killed her husband and made her a wheelchair user. She is traumatised and grieving, but too proud, and it’s too much of a busman's holiday to get real emotional help. She is an island, living away from home, trying to keep her head down. The last thing she wants is a problem or a cause. 

Bethany is her patient. Not that she wants to be. She hates doctors. She is in a secure unit for supposedly committing matricide but she swears she has been wrongly accused. She thinks she has magical powers. Hence why she's in a psych unit and not a prison. She is the daughter of a rising star of the Faith Way which is a powerful religious movement. And she does NOT like her dad.

Could you tell us a bit about your journey into writing ?  What gave you that desire to create your own material?

I began writing autobiographical theatre works for myself in 2008. I wasn’t an actor and I wasn’t a writer but I did know how to talk honestly about my own life and connect with other humans. I guess I started writing when I had something to say. Later it became fictions.

You now move between theatre, TV and film - how did you get that break into writing for broadcast and what would you say are some of the key differences you’ve noticed from theatre?

The first broadcast script I ever wrote was Last Christmas (a feature film I wrote on with Emma Thompson). When you work in theatre successfully telly and film are always interested in you as you understand narrative. Theatre is both a metaphorical and a literal space. Broadcast is not so much. It’s a visual medium. More literal in the mainstream. There is more space in theatre for the audience I think, it’s more active in its liveness and complicity. Screen is able to transport locations and span time better. So each has its strengths. Television is very long form: it’s six to ten whole hours with a story and its characters. A lot more work.

How did you go about writing your adaptation of Liz Jensen’s novel, making decisions about what to keep and change?

Firstly novels don’t have enough content for series, you always generally add more characters and events I would say. We also had to update it as it was a decade old. I wanted it to speak about what we face today. Liz was so supportive, we changed what we needed to. The core values still beat. We also didn’t want a disaster movie ending. I feel on screen that separates us.

Can you tell us a bit about your current show Bog Witch, which is touring the country including this year's Edinburgh Fringe?

It’s the latest instalment in shows about my life. This is a folk story about moving to the country and coping with the deafening silence and the cutting off from capitalism. It’s about returning to nature, slowing down, reaching out and hearing the planet. 

What advice would you offer to someone who is planning to write their own script - or the best piece advice that was given to you?

Narrative is deceptively simple and a shared language that we all understand in the west, so as long as you learn that formula you are all set technically. So the more important thing is your own authentic creative voice. Write what you know, be bold and tell the truth about humanity. Also remember if you are writing a story on this planet and at this time then you have a duty to include what is happening to our planet in your story. It’s our job as writers to show solutions, move the story forward. Please consider joining the ecological fight.