Being Human 305 – The Longest Day

Annie: Social services - it's got to be. She looks knackered and she has terrible hair.

About the show

Being Human is a BBC Three TV show which centers on the lives of three flatmates. One of them is a vampire (“Mitchell”), the second a werewolf (“George”) and the third a ghost (“Annie”). As from Series 3, a fourth member has been added as a regular, Nina, the love interest for George, who is also a werewolf, having been converted by George in an earlier series.

For more information on this show, see :
BBC Being Human homepage
(note that the clips available on this website are only available to UK viewers)

Wikipedia Being Human page

For a recount of the events which took place before the episode was broadcast, GO TO THIS POST.

Screencaps

You can view screencaps of Nicola from this episode HERE.

Nicola’s Role

Nicola is a guest star in episode 5 of Series 3 of this programme. She plays Wendy, a social worker who has been assigned to assess the suitability of the four flatmates as carers of Herrick, a psych patient, found at the hospital where Mitchell, George and Nina work. Only they know that Herrick is no ordinary psych patient. Herrick is the century old vampire who first converted Mitchell into a vampire, was previously killed by George in werewolf mode and has now been resurrected by one of Herrick’s fangirls. All of this information must be kept from Wendy, who has her own problems at work. As you can read from the reviews below, it was a brilliant performance by Nicola. From the 2010 Ian Wylie interview, we know that she had a blast working on this episode.

This episode was broadcast in the UK on 20 February 2011 on BBC Three at 9 pm GMT. This episode was shown in the US on BBC America on 19 March 2011. Unfortunately, the version which was aired in the US is slightly different from the version shown on UK TV, e.g. Nicola’s “surfing” scene was cut! US fans will need to watch the DVD to find out which bits have been cut 🙁 .

The photo above is a promo pic released by BBC Three. For a larger version of this photo, click HERE.

Reviews

Most of the reviews on this episode on Nicola’s guest appearance are positive :

Guardian

Meanwhile, another week and another uncommonly brilliant guest turn in the shape of Nicola Walker’s harassed, insomniac, Red Bull-swigging social worker Wendy. We’re not going to be able to watch Spooks with the same eyes again, frankly.

Daemon’s TV

My favourite part of the episode had to be Nicola Walker’s social worker, Wendy. I’ve never seen Walker do comedy before but she was pitch-perfect, raising all he laughs of the episode. The way the writers played her one comedic character against five relatively straight characters was pretty skillful, so kudos for that.

The Yorker

The dippy, slightly annoying social worker was about as far from Spooks’ Ruth as a character can be, and yet Nicola Walker was brilliant, offering some welcome comic relief amongst some decidedly darker moments.

Den of Geek

The episode largely hung on the strength of social worker Wendy’s visit, which played out rather well. Actress Nicola Walker played it for laughs just as much as the rest of the cast, and fitted in rather well as a result. And while there were some moments requiring the suspension of disbelief, Nina’s takedown of her was pure TV gold.

Cathode Ray Tube

… but it also develops the subtext of the domestic abuse of vulnerable people that is highlighted by the appearance of Nicola Walker as social worker Wendy whose low self-esteem also speaks of other forms of workplace abuse from her boss Barbara. Walker is thoroughly captivating as the woman from social services (as confirmed by Annie “she looks knackered and she has terrible hair”) struggling with her own grip on reality (delayed by “bloody druids” and discovering her lunch squashed inside her laptop is just the start of her troubles) when she steps into a house where the inhabitants must be more convincingly normal than they have ever been.

The lone voice of dissent being :

Unreality Shout

For me, the episode seemed to lose steam in the middle, the whole thing with the social worker just wasn’t remotely interesting.

Six degrees

Sarah Phelps wrote this episode. She also wrote Oliver Twist in which Nicola had a small guest role as Sally, the poorhouse worker who was present at Oliver’s birth and kept a vital piece of information from him.

Jason Watkins who plays Herrick the vampire in Being Human also appeared with Nicola in Man of Mode/The Libertine [Stage].

Availability on DVD