Century Falls is a British children's fantasy-drama Television Serial made and broadcast by the BBC in 1993. Written by Russell T Davies, the series was his second original work for CBBC following 1991's Dark Season. Retooled from one of the two planned plotlines for its sequel, it became the next (and ultimately final) instalment in a planned trilogy of separate serials by Davies.
The six-part series revolves around the titular remote village; lonely overweight teenage girl Tess Hunter and her pregnant mother have moved there, in the hopes of a new fresh start. Tess quickly realises it has a Dark Secret - it is almost entirely populated by ageing adults, and the only other two children around, Ben and Carey Naismith, have also just arrived to stay with their uncle Richard.
Tess befriends the twins, and is plunged into mystery. Aided by the Harkness sisters, wounded survivors of the events that shaped their village decades ago, she discovers the truth about an occult ceremony gone wrong, a strange golden figure behind the waterfalls, and the dangerous pagan power unleashed in a ruined temple. Their darkness threatens to return - and Tess has to stop it.
Century Falls ran from 17 February 1993 to 24 March 1993 on its original UK airing. Unlike RTD's previous early 90s serial Dark Season, it was never repeated by the BBC or adapted into a novelisation, and has not latterly received an audiobook or sequel from Big Finish. Davies' envisaged third serial, The Heat of the Sun, was additionally never produced. However, Century Falls was later released on DVD alongside its predecessor by 2|entertain in 2006, and has more recently been made available to stream on Britbox and ITVX.
This series provides examples of:
- Anti-Hero: Ben. At best, his motives and ideals (or lack thereof) throughout the serial can be seen as ambivalent, and at worst utterly inhumane.
- Childless Dystopia: Localised entirely within the secluded village of Century Falls.
- Darker and Edgier: The post-modern, comedic tones of Davies' first and previous BBC serial Dark Season, which was part high camp and part high drama, are jettisoned for darker pre-modern values here. That series' comic strip villains and quick-witted children conditioned to be ahead of the game by TV seem far lighter when compared to the more understated, hopeless fight against an evil demonic force manifesting in the mindscape of an unborn child seen in Century Falls. Davies has put this down to a trend where inexperienced writers start to "get off on the dark stuff".
- Evil Old Folks: Here in abundance. Most significantly Richard (Ben and Carey's uncle) at first, then Julia, when her true intents are revealed.
- I See Dead People: First seen at the end of the first episode in Ben's vision of the past.
- Loners Are Freaks: Tess is a classic self-absorbed and indecisive loner. Although she fulfils her mother's hopes by making connections with the only other two children in the village, the girl's perceived character is later summed up well whilst she is in denial over lives being genuinely threatened by the dark secrets of the village -Mrs Hunter: You're a lonely fat girl who fills her days with stories instead of friends, because life's easier like that.
- Psychic Children: At first just Ben, whose powers come to light fairly quickly in the form of clairvoyant flashbacks to the terrible past of the village. It soon transpires that the entire rest of the town, even including new arrival Tess, have powers too.
- Sterility Plague: Why are there no children in Century Falls besides the new arrivals? Answers on a postcard...
- Token Adult: Esme Harkness, the 63-year-old who supports the children in their struggle.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Very much played upon with Century Falls, the dark secret being that its townsfolk have possessed psychic powers for centuries, historically making them targets for witch hunts and other societal panics. In an attempt to stay cut off from the rest of the world, they attempted to manifest a demon... for which they paid a terrible price (see Sterility Plague above).
- Wild Card: Ben is one of these, to the extent of constantly being referred to as such by characters.
- You Are Fat: Tess gets constant reminders of this. She is often insulted about her weight and loneliness by her own mother (see Loners Are Freaks above), and even the people who are supposed to be her new friends. Some of her sharper dialogue even plays up to this characteristic:Tess Hunter (crashing into the post office shop): Two Mars bars, three first class stamps and one explanation - fast!
