Torchwood - Children of Earth - Day 5

*****MAJOR SPOILER WARNING*****

Torchwood - Children of Earth

Stunning

This series of just five hour long programs should surely go down as one of the all time classic BBC dramas. Yes, it may be "sci-fi" but the underlying current of the whole story was the depths that humanity will go to in order to preserve itself. It studied the human condition down to its dirtiest depths. It wasn't pretty.
With shows like Dr Who and Torchwood, we normally see the lighter side of tragedy, if there could be such a thing. Dead heroes get a second chance, the bad guy always gets defeated and everyone lives another day able to forget the troubled times they have just survived. This story shows that there are always consequences, that life is full of difficult choices, and you cannot forget the past, you cannot hide the truth forever and that, in the end, we all die.
This series is an amazing triumph for Russell T Davies, and he certainly seems to be getting all the praise, though he did co-write this series with two others (John Fay and James Moran). Personally, I think a lot of the success should be attributed to the fantastic directing of Euros Lyn, who has always done marvelous work on Dr Who and Torchwood before, but excelled himself with this story. Also to be highly praised should be Ben Foster who composed the soundtrack for the series. There are also a multitude of people behind the scenes who never see praise because they are so skilled at their jobs that they are never even noticed. All the crew should be proud of their work.
All of the above hard work would have been for nothing though if it wasn't for the amazing performances put in by ALL the cast. I cannot fault any of the actors, from the hundreds of children who all played their part superbly, without resorting to OTT "stage school" acting that some child actors can do, to the main players whose performances tugged at our heart strings throughout the five days of drama.
Eve Myles surpassed herself in this series, as did Kai Owen, who finally got a chance to really shine. Even John Barrowman, whose acting I have criticised previously, didn't overplay his scenes and performed them exactly how they should have been seen.
Gareth David-Lloyd, my favourite of the main cast, didn't make an appearance in this final episode, but his performance throughout the previous ones was true to character; quiet, subservient, while being truly heroic. He died a quiet death, not making a scene, but stating to his loved one his true feelings at the last possible moment. An understated death for an understated character. For this reason I am glad in a way that his death was final, and he wasn't brought back as he would have been in some other series'. If he had been brought back it would have only have cheapened his heroism. The truth of Torchwood is that its operatives very rarely die of natural causes, as was stated in this series itself.
Looking back, we should have know Ianto was going to die, when he began talking to Jack about him watching Ianto grow old. A sure give-away that I missed at the time.

If there is any justice, not only should this series be nominated for multiple BAFTAs, but it should also win them all. And that should just be the tip of the award iceberg. Programs like this are exactly what the licence fee should be used to produce. More of the same BBC please, more of the same.