There’s a lot of good telly and streaming about at the moment. So much, our handy list of the best shows of the year is getting longer by the week. The latest contender for a spot is Alibi’s new cult thriller ‘The Red King’. And that’s ‘cult’ in the dancing-in-the-buff-praising-fertiility-gods sense of the word.
‘The Red King’ is a new cop thriller with a folk horror undercurrents. And if you’re thinking: ‘Sounds a bit like “The Wicker Man”,’ you’d be right to.
Alibi’s six-episode series is essentially a modern riff on Robin Hardy’s ‘The Wicker Man’ (or ‘Hot Fuzz’) – and there’s no shame in borrowing from one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
The thriller, created by ‘Being Human’s Toby Whithouse, sends a police sergeant to a Welsh island on the case of a missing boy. There, she discovers a community in thrall to a pagan cult worshipping the so-called Red King.
Inside the ‘The Red King’ filming locations
Like ‘The Wicker Man’, where the fictional island of Summerisle was created using a variety of locations on the west coast of Scotland, ‘The Red King’ created its island community on the mainland. And in England rather than Wales.
The fictional island of St Jory was actually filmed on the ruggedly beautiful Northumberland coast. Key locations include the picturesque fishing village of Craster, the nearby village of Embleton and the island market town of Alnwick, known for its famous castle and gardens.
‘We are literally cherry picking the most beautiful places in Northumberland,’ says Anjli Mohindra. ‘We’ve been to Alnwick and Alnmouth, along with the beautiful coastal area of Craster.’
‘It’s so odd that occasionally people will ask me “where’s it being filmed?” and I have to stop myself from saying: “Oh it’s on a little island off the Pembrokeshire coast,” because it isn’t.’
Who’s in the cast of ‘The Red King’?
In ‘The Wicker Man’ terms, it’s Anjli Mohindra ('The Lazarus Project') in the Edward Woodward role as Grace Narayan, a Newcastle police sergeant sent on a ‘punishment posting’ to the Welsh island of St Jory. Her task, to investigate the disappearance of a boy called Cai, is quickly complicated by the existence of a cult called the True Way at the heart of this island community. And some hostile locals.
‘State of Play’s Marc Warren is Cai’s dad, alcoholic local doctor Ian Prideaux, while ‘Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh is local landowner Lady Heather Nancarrow. Is she ‘The Red King’s answer to Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle?
Jill Halfpenny plays Detective Chief Inspector Ann Fletcher, a tough cop who arrives in the sinister community in episode two and stirs things up. The TV veteran is currently appearing on the other side of the law in ITV thriller ‘The Cuckoo’.
Mark Lewis Jones – Donny’s dad in ‘Baby Reindeer’ – is retired cop Gruffudd Prosser, a retired cop on the island who is one of those hostile elements. ‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’s James Bamford is his loyal former deputy, Owen Parry, who know enforces the law on the island. Well, ish.
How many episodes are there?
There are six hour-long episodes in the series.
How to watch The Red King
The Red King is on Alibi on Wednesdays at 9pm. All the episodes are available to stream on Sky, Virgin and Now TV.
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Where is ‘The Cuckoo’ filmed? Inside the filming location behind the new thriller.