By Jon Donnis
Set against the gaslit streets of Victorian London, Leviathan is a short film that plunges straight into the heart of the Autumn of Terror. Running at a tight 18 minutes, it revisits 1888 as the Whitechapel murders continue to devastate the East End and leave the city paralysed with fear.
At the centre of the story is a young Dr Conan Doyle, drawn into the hunt for Jack the Ripper and challenged to apply the methods of his own fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes, to a very real nightmare. He is joined by Professor Joseph Bell, the real life inspiration behind Holmes, and Margaret Harkness, a determined journalist driven by a need to expose the truth. Together, this uneasy alliance must overcome personal differences as they attempt to unmask the figure haunting the fog bound streets.
The film presents London as a city on edge, cowering as a monstrous presence stalks the night. Leviathan leans into atmosphere and character, framing the investigation as much around intellect and observation as it is around dread and urgency. The familiar mythology of the Ripper is filtered through the perspective of those trying to impose reason on chaos.
Based on the novel A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper, Leviathan is directed by James Mansell and written by Harper himself. The cast includes Lauren Cornelius, known for Gavin and Stacey and Call the Midwife, alongside Rafe Bird from Ripper's Revenge and Matthew Lloyd Davies of The Madness of King George. Together, they bring historical figures and tensions to life in a concise but focused retelling of one of London's darkest chapters.
Leviathan promises a compact, atmospheric take on a well known mystery, blending history, fiction and the origins of a legendary detective into a single nightmarish pursuit.
Available on PBS
