Series creator Dominic Mitchell and actor Wunmi Mosaku talk about a major new character for the returning zombie drama.
Zombie drama In The Flesh returns to our screens shortly for a second run of six episodes. And SFX issue 246 – on sale now – includes a three-page set visit feature, featuring interviews with series creator Dominic Mitchell and stars Luke Newberry and Emily Bevan.
One of the major developments this time out is the arrival of a new MP for Roarton, the Lancashire village where the series is set. Wunmi Mosaku plays Maxine Martin, who represents a “Pro Living” party called Victus, who are working to restrict the rights of PDS sufferers. But she’s no ranting demagogue, as Dominic Mitchell explains.
“That’s what makes her quite scary. She’s got some good points. She’s not coming in and going, ‘They’re all the devil!’ She’s giving very practical reasons why you shouldn’t be welcoming PDS sufferers with open arms. ‘If we can’t separate them from the living, they’ve got to be properly monitored.’ They’re inherently dangerous. If you take away their medication, they will go rabid. As she says, ‘Is it even hygienic? These people are half dead!’ She’s a human being like everyone else. We’ve really tried not to make her too arch.”
And actor Wunmi Mosaku agrees that it’s not easy to pigeonhole the MP as a villain.
“I don’t think you can, because politically it depends if you’re on the right or the left. I think I might quite agree with her. I would say I was quite on the left, but with zombies I think I would be on the right! She’s a baddie in many people’s eyes because she’s not pro PDS sufferers; she thinks that they are subhuman and that you can’t treat them the same. So she’s chosen a party that’s pro-life because she doesn’t necessarily agree with reintegrating them so completely into society.”
Ian Berriman has been working for SFX – the world's leading sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – since March 2002. He's also a regular writer for Electronic Sound. Other publications he's contributed to include Total Film, When Saturday Comes, Retro Pop, Horrorville, and What DVD. A life-long Doctor Who fan, he's also a supporter of Hull City, and live-tweets along to BBC Four's Top Of The Pops repeats from his @TOTPFacts account.
