Charles Dance stars in this BBC miniseries, adapted by Ted Whitehead from Maureen Duffy’s darkly disturbing novel, Gorsaga.
Dance plays Edward Forester, a geneticist who dreams of a new species – with man’s intelligence, but without his homicidal aggression – and mixes his own sperm with cells from a female gorilla to create an infant man-ape, named Gor(don).
At the same time, Forester’s wife (Julie Peasgood) gives birth to a baby girl named Nell.
Forester hides the true origin of his experiment (telling his colleagues that the sperm for the hybrid came from an orangutan) and adopts the child (Peter Wiggins).
He helps Gor to speak and blend into society, and the child grows into a fine, human-looking son (Jamie Foster) who enrols in a military academy, where he becomes a brilliant athlete and top marksman.
He is unable to use a bayonet, though, because his gorilla genes have left him without aggression.
Gor decides he would perhaps like to enter the church instead, and Forester begins assessing potential monasteries for him. In the meantime, he takes Gor home for a few weeks, where Forester’s daughter, Nell (Gabrielle Anwar), takes an instant shine to Gor.
When Gor eventually discovers the facts of his cross-species birth, he demands to see his mother – a gorilla named Mary – who beats him to death in a violent rage.
To pile on the horrors – and the dire warnings about the dangers of playing God – Forester’s incestuous daughter Nell gives birth to Gor’s child, who is plainly a hybrid.
One of the young babies who played the newborn Gor in the series died just two months after the show aired.
Seven-month-old Jack Dymond was found unconscious in his Bristol home and was placed on life support at a city hospital, but died the following morning, a victim of cot death (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)).
Edward Forester Charles Dance Ann Forester
Julie Peasgood Lancing
Philip Madoc Gor
Peter Wiggins (child)
Jamie Foster Nell Forester Beth Pearce (child)
Gabrielle Anwar Nancy Knott Rosemary McHale Chris Knott Peter Tilbury Dr Graham
Roshan Seth Marais
Marc de Jonge Jessop
Niven Boyd Emily Jessop
Sharon Duce The Baby
Jack Dymond
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Dance plays Edward Forester, a geneticist who dreams of a new species – with man’s intelligence, but without his homicidal aggression – and mixes his own sperm with cells from a female gorilla to create an infant man-ape, named Gor(don).
He helps Gor to speak and blend into society, and the child grows into a fine, human-looking son (Jamie Foster) who enrols in a military academy, where he becomes a brilliant athlete and top marksman.
