The main character in Dark Season is Marcie Hatter (Victoria Lambert), an idiosyncratic, cynical and bossy 14-year-old who carries a lacrosse stick in her bag, notices the smallest details, and acts twenty years older than her age.
Attempting to keep up with her are fifth-form schoolfriends Thomas (Ben Chandler) and Reet (a young Kate Winslet, five years before her first Oscar nomination) and teacher Miss Maitland (Brigit Forsyth).
Dark Season was effectively two three-part serials. The first saw the gang investigating a company that was giving free computers to their school.
In the second storyline, the kids discovered a powerful relic of the Second World War – the “Behemoth” – a sophisticated war machine buried in the school grounds and battled a group of blonde neo-Nazis for control of it.
They were pitted against two Doctor Who-style villains: the evil Mr Eldritch (Grant Parsons) – a sunglasses-wearing, bleached-blonde millionaire – and Miss Pendragon (Jacqueline Pearce).
What the production lacked in budget it made up for in style. Director Colin Cant shot it as creatively as possible, with frequent Dutch tilts down corridors, creating an unsettling atmosphere.
With its witty script, eccentric characters and fun sci-fi ideas, Dark Season spawned Russell T Davies’s second spooky series: Century Falls (1993).
Marcie Hatter
Victoria Lambert Reet
Kate Winslet Thomas
Ben Chandler Miss Maitland
Brigit Forsyth Mr Eldritch
Grant Parsons Behemoth
Marsha Fitzalan Miss Pendragon
Jacqueline Pearce Inga
Martina Berne Dr Osley
Tim Barker Mrs Polzinski
Rosalie Crutchley Mr Polzinski
Cyril Shaps Olivia
Samantha Cahill Luke
Stephen Tredre Headmaster
Roger Milner Marcie’s Mum
Wendy Wareham
