Wolf
Series Directed by Lee Haven Jones & Kristoffer Nyholm
Based on the Mo Hayder “Jack Caffrey” series
Created and written by Megan Gallagher
writing credit: Candy Davis
Series Cast
Iwan Rheon … Molina
Sacha Dhawan … D.I. Honey
Ukweli Roach … Jack Caffrey
Juliet Stevenson … Matilda
Owen Teale … Oliver
Annes Elwy … Lucia
Veronica … Kezia Burrows
Ciarán Joyce … Prody
Gwïon Morris Jones … Hugo
Sian Reese-Williams … D.I. Maia Lincoln
Zadeiah Campbell-Davies … Emily
Emily Adara … Sophie
Anthony Webster … Ivan Penderecki
Production companies: APC Studios, BBC Studios, Hartswood Films
Wolf is very much one of those rare “What the hell did I just see?” television series. The BBC six-parter, based on the Mo Hayder “Jack Caffrey” series, is a wild, unhinged, and very dark suspense thriller, one of the best I’ve seen in years.
The story has two major plotlines and several lesser ones, with enough twists and turns that by the time you get to the end of the fifth episode, you are about four layers deep in the mind fuckery. In one plotline, the protagonist, Jack Caffrey (Roach) is obsessed by a childhood neighbor Ivan Penderecki (Webster), a paedophile he believes abducted and killed his brother when they were respectively ten and eight years old. Penderecki teases Caffrey by leaving some of his brother’s toys for him to find, and gives him sinister waves with a demented grin from his window across from Caffrey’s brother’s bedroom.
The other major plotline is the murder of two teens at a stone ruin called the Donkey Pitch (so-called, local lore claims, because donkeys were once corralled there). The murders were gruesome, with both teens eviscerated, and their entrails left dangling in a nearby bush. Some five years later, a wealthy couple and their 22-year-old daughter are subject to a home invasion by a couple of false cops, D.I. Honey (Dhawan) and D.S. Molina (Iwan Rheon, known to Game of Thrones viewers as Ramsey Bolton, the psychotic son of Roose Bolton, holder of the Dreadfort in Westeros. Next only to Prince Joffrey, Ramsey was the most feared and hated character in the series. Rheon’s performance here will remind you more of Ramsey’s victim of psychological and physical torture, Reek.).
Honey and Molina trap the family (the Anchor-Ferrers, if you please) and secure them in their remote mansion in Monmouthshire, Wales, making it clear they intend to kill them. Jack is in the area investigating the old murders, not satisfied that the man who confessed to the murders, Minnet Kable, was the actual perpetrator. He believes there had to have been two murderers. Meanwhile, Honey and Molina are strongly hinting to their captives that they are, in fact, the Donkey Pitch murderers.
But the main element that will keep you riveted to the screen is the creeping, crawling sense of suspense and horror that builds and builds. One of the main scary characters is Bones, who hosts raves in the area, including the one the two teens were murdered after, and who is always attired in a HazMat suit and WW1 type gasmask. Caffrey’s boss, D.I. Maia Lincoln (Reese-Williams) is distinctly “off” in some undefinable way. And there’s a gun-happy cult at a nearby river encampment. There’s also a cute little lost dog who manages not to be sinister, and crocodiles, a problem not normally associated with Wales. All the plotlines do go somewhere.
There is one final plot twist at the end of the final episode, one that calls out for a sequel season. However, Wolf was the final book in the Jack Caffrey series, and the author, Mo Hayder sadly passed away from Motor Neurone Disease a few years back. Still, Game of Thrones went past where the books stopped, and you’ve got Iwan Rheon at hand to make suggestions.
Megan Gallagher is the creator and main writer of the show, and was previously best known for the dark comedy Grand Hotel. Writer Candy Davis was known for Are You Being Served? And oh, by the way, she was also Mo Hayder. The directors, Lee Haven Jones & Kristoffer Nyholm, did an absolutely stellar job in pacing and suspense, and managed an infinitely convoluted and widely scattered plot without confusing and losing the viewers. Acting was good throughout, with special note for Iwan Rheon, Juliet Stevenson (Matilda Anchor-Ferrer), Annes Elwy (Lucia) and Ukweli Roach (Jack Caffery). Searing performances.
I don’t recommend this series for young children, unless you’re the sort who enjoys listening to them scream deep into the night. If you are, consider auditioning for the next Caffrey series. You’ll fit right in.
Now on BBC.