I don't know about you, but I love Alex Kingston. The ER actress has recently become a genre favorite with her recurring roles as Fiona Banks in FlashForward and as River Song in Doctor Who. She's enigmatic, charismatic, and has an almost ageless quality that makes you unsure if she's thirty or fifty (she's 47, believe it or not).
Now, it looks like genre fans will have another reason to appreciate Kingston, since she'll be appearing in another supernatural drama. It's distinctly different from her other sci-fi outings Who and FlashForward, and is more easily akin to Ghost Whisperer or Medium. Interested yet?
Britain's ITV has commissioned the series, titled The Oaks, from writer Stephen Greenhorn (known for the Doctor Who episodes "The Lazarus Experiment" and "The Doctor's Daughter"). According to Digital Spy, the five-part series "will tell the story of three different families living in the same house over several decades: the 1960s, 1980s and present day. The families are linked by the spirit of a young girl, the daughter of the 1960s family who died in mysterious circumstances."
The series, which has begun filming in London, has been described by various people involved in production as "a strongly authored, ambitious piece," "compellingly written," and a "distinctive drama."
It's unknown when the series will premiere in the UK, or if it will jump the pond to air on BBC America (an interesting question to be raised, considering the show is adapted from an original US pilot). It certainly has grabbed my attention, and, with the little commitment it requires (only five episodes), it could prove to be a much-watched favorite among television fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
