Introducing...
Playing the part of Reet is a young actress by the name of Kate Winslet. This was not her first television role - Kate had appeared in Casualty in 1989, playing Suzanne in the episode Family Matters.

About the writer
Writer Russell T Davies was working at the Manchester branch of Children's BBC which specialised in comedy and entertainment. Desperate to write drama, he sent episode one of Dark Season to Anna Home, head of Children's BBC via the BBC internal mail.

Russell went on to write Children's BBC drama Century Falls, Queer as Folk and Bob and Rose. He is also the writer and executive producer of the new series of Doctor Who, returning to BBC One in 2005.

Before Buffy
Could Joss Whedon have been inspired by Dark Season when he was coming up for idea for Buffy? The whole plot about a school hiding ancient secrets beneath its foundations and an awesome Behemoth rising from its tomb, is very similar to Buffy and its Hellmouth beneath Sunnydale High. Could Marcie, Reet and Thom be a prototype for Buffy and the Scooby Gang?

Who is Marcie?
Many have compared Marcie to the Doctor from Doctor Who, in that she is a distant figure whose origins remain a mystery.

Marcie's comment 'Oh marvellous, I'm a clich�!' when she escapes from Miss Pendragon using a handy ventilation shaft, is an obvious dig at a staple of Doctor Who.

Homage to Who
Eldritch's line, 'Nothing in the world can stop me now!' could also be a homage to Who. The line was uttered by the character Professor Zaroff in the 1967 story The Underwater Menace.

Reet also plays with a yo-yo for her 'gravity readings', a gag the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) used in The Power of Kroll.

Blondes have less fun
As Miss Pendragon, Jacqueline Pearce was also supposed to sport a blonde wig. The actress refused, hence the turban.

In production
Production costs were kept low by filming the majority of Dark Season within a ten-mile radius of London. The Behemoth control room was filmed at Ealing Studios.

Very few edits were made to the final episodes. A line was cut concerning Thom's lack of computer knowledge in episode one, and a scene in the final episode where Pendragon's followers desert her.

Novel idea
A slide advertising the novel of Dark Season by Russell T Davies appeared at the end of each episode.

Repeat Season
Dark Season exists in its entirety in the BBC archive, but there hasn't been a video or DVD release. The series was repeated on the digital channel CBBC 23rd, 24th and 30th March 2002.

Where are they now?
We hear Kate Winslet has made a few films and Russell T Davies has written some stuff. This was Victoria Lambert (Marcie) and Ben Chandler's (Thomas) only television work. Jacqueline Pearce continues to act and in recent years was in a West End production of Dangerous Corner. Brigit Forsyth is also best known for her stage work, recently playing the mother in the musical High Society at the Regence Park Open Air Theatre.