"The main plot is freedom, family and faith. The subplot is exposing climate conspiracy."
Screenwriter Bryony Kimmings on how she approached climate themes in The Rapture, a new Mammoth Screen series for BBC iPlayer and BBC One.
"Writing this adaptation of The Rapture, ten years after Liz Jensen’s novel was published, presented me with a unique opportunity to update the climate narratives and specificities of the story, and to get dry data and meaningful climate topics into the show via the characters and the premise.
For The Rapture, the starting premise is a character, Bethany Krall, who has visions of bad things that might happen in the future. Her visions seem like delusions - locked inside a facility and accused of murdering her mother, she seems on paper to be lying. To get sympathy, to get free. A false prophet.
Yet, as Bethany’s visions get stronger, we start to realise they are connected to something bigger - a cover up, exposing climate hypocrisy, the fickleness of government and legal manipulation.
This was an excellent way to inject action. The main plot is freedom, family and faith. The subplot is exposing climate conspiracy. We wanted subtlety and believability. Not to evoke lecture or a distant force pressing down on us…rather greed and protectionism and real people. Not too much exposition. We also wanted to be sure to have an important reason to include the issues we did.
We crafted the conspiracy around things we wanted to speak about. Each part is incorporated into a different character just trying to get through the day, or trapped in a job they hate or a spiral they can’t stop. You only need a couple of lines for people to relate to it.
For example, take a character who is asking what harm could be done if they sign off on this deal to open up a small new oil field in Scotland. They justify the decision as being good for the economy whilst we switch to renewables,it’s nowhere near as much as other companies are drilling for...despite knowing that any new oil drilling is contributing to the climate crisis, and the benefit is likely a fudge. It is self justification for a deal with the devil, a make or break moment for this person weighing up their decision …and that’s where you can get dry data in."
The Rapture is a Mammoth Screen production now available on BBC iPlayer and BBC One.
Climate Spring is proud to have acted as story consultants for Mammoth Screen and Bryony Kimmings on this project.