---
title: "The Fades"
year: 2011
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-fades"
fi1m_id: "the-fades"
imdb_id: "tt1772379"
tmdb_id: 41211
wikidata_id: "Q1896766"
fi1m_score: 72
critics_score: 61
critics_reviews: 4
published: "2026-10-07T15:45:49.340331+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T15:45:57.352504+00:00"
region: "AU"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Fades (2011)

Created by Jack Thorne · 1h 00m · Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

## Identity

The Fades

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-fades
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** the-fades
- **IMDb ID:** tt1772379
- **TMDB ID:** 41211
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1896766
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772379/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/41211, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1896766

**Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 61 (early) from 4 reviews

*In a sentence:* The apocalypse arrives in an English suburb and the only person prepared for it has seen too many films

> Jack Thorne’s six-part horror begins as a familiar chosen-boy story and becomes something frightening and its own. Johnny Harris is the reason to stay through the shaky opening hour; the dead, when they finally stand still, are the reason you will not sleep.

## Synopsis

Paul Roberts (Iain De Caestecker) is a sixth-former in an ordinary English town who still wets the bed and dreams, night after night, of ash falling from the sky. He also sees things nobody else does: the dead, standing in corridors and multi-storey car parks, grey and silent and watching. His best friend Mac Armstrong (Daniel Kaluuya) talks in film references and knows nothing about any of it. His twin sister Anna (Lily Loveless) treats him as an embarrassment. Then Neil Valentine (Johnny Harris), a scruffy man who can see the dead too, finds him and explains what they are: Fades, the ones who could not move on, and some of them are changing. Paul wants Jay (Sophie Wu) and a quiet life. Neil wants him for a war.

## Review

Jack Thorne, who wrote on [*Skins*](https://film.one/tv/skins), has made a six-hour horror about a sixth-former who sees the dead. The first episode is shaky. It has the chosen boy, the tired mentor who explains the rules, the clever friend who knows how this sort of story goes, and anyone who watched [*Buffy the Vampire Slayer*](https://film.one/tv/buffy-the-vampire-slayer) will know where the furniture is. Stay with it. By the third hour *The Fades* has grown into a scrappy, frightening series with its own ideas about what the dead want from us, and we finished it unsettled and glad we had.

The dead who could not move on are called Fades, and they do not float or glow. They stand about. Stephan Pehrsson shoots them in flat English daylight, in car parks and school corridors, and does not light them any differently from the living, which is why they are hard to look at. Catrin Meredydd gives the town nothing to be proud of: pebbledash, strip lights, a derelict precinct. Paul’s dreams of ash are the one place the series allows itself a picture, grey flakes settling on a town that does not know it is finished.

The first time a Fade stood at the back of a frame and did nothing, we were properly frightened. The make-up gives them skin like wallpaper coming away from a damp wall, and the series has the nerve to let them be sad before it lets them be dangerous. The horror, when it comes, is wet and close and badly lit, which is the right way round.

Johnny Harris carries the mythology, and it is heavy. Neil Valentine is a man in a bad coat who has fought this alone for years and expects no thanks, and Harris plays him with a reasonable, patient voice that keeps saying unreasonable things. When the writing asks him to explain what an Angelic is, or why the dead are turning, he makes it sound like a man reading the gas bill, and the information goes down easier for it.

Iain De Caestecker makes the chosen boy bearable. His Paul sweats, apologises, and looks at every revelation as though he would rather it had happened to somebody else. Daniel Kaluuya’s Mac gets the best lines and talks over all of them, a boy who has seen every film and is thrilled, against his better judgement, to be in one; we laughed at most of his speeches and then felt we should not have, because Thorne lets us see how lonely he is under them. Lily Loveless is sharp and cruel as Anna, and Claire Rushbrook, as their mother Meg, knows something is wrong with her son and has run out of professionals to ask.

The quiet surprise is Natalie Dormer and Tom Ellis as Sarah and Mark Etches, a marriage already in trouble. What happens to Sarah in the opening minutes sets the story going and we will leave it there. Their scenes together are the ones we did not expect to be moved by, and were, because Thorne writes them as two people who still like each other and cannot say so.

The rules shift from episode to episode, and we were never sure what an Angelic could do or why ascension stopped working; nor, at times, was the series. Paul’s pursuit of Jay is written thinly and Sophie Wu is given little to do but be wanted. Paul Thomson’s score pushes at moments the pictures had already handled. Three editors are credited, Luke Dunkley, Matthew Tabern and Sam Williams, and the pace lurches, long talk then sudden running, which may be why. Farren Blackburn and Tom Shankland share the direction and favour a hand-held wobble that helps the frights and hurts the conversations.

Six hours, a 15 certificate, and a last episode that has too much to do and does most of it. If British horror is your genre, this is a good evening, and a better two. Watch it with the lights off and somebody beside you who knows nothing about it, and do not let them look up what a Fade is before Harris tells them.

*Fi1m score 72, published 7 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Fades worth watching?**

*The Fades* is worth watching for anyone who likes British horror and can forgive a shaky first episode, and we scored it 72. Johnny Harris carries the mythology and the dead, standing silent in car parks and school corridors, are properly frightening once the series finds its feet. The rules of its world shift from episode to episode, and the romance is thin.

**How long is The Fades, and what is it rated?**

*The Fades* has episodes of about 1h 00m. It is a drama and sci-fi & fantasy series.

**Where can I watch The Fades in Australia?**

*The Fades* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Australia, and it is also available to buy from Apple TV. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Fades, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Fades* carries a 15 certificate in the UK and is not suitable for children. The dead are shown with skin like peeling wallpaper, and the horror, when it arrives, is wet and close; we were frightened by a Fade simply standing at the back of a frame. Older teenagers who like ghost stories will manage it, the squeamish may not.

**How does The Fades compare to Buffy the Vampire Slayer?**

*The Fades* borrows its chosen-boy template from [*Buffy the Vampire Slayer*](https://film.one/tv/buffy-the-vampire-slayer) but is bleaker, shorter and far more frightening. *Buffy* has the better jokes, the longer run and the more irritable, affecting heroine; *The Fades* has flat English daylight, a derelict town and dead who simply stand and watch. Choose *Buffy* for wit over many seasons, *The Fades* for six hours of scrappy British horror.

### Reviews we read (4)

- **The Guardian**, Dan Martin (75/100, inferred): Martin says the series grows from a shaky start into a compelling, classy achievement for British horror. He praises Iain de Caestecker’s performance as Paul and the show’s increasingly convincing world. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/oct/20/have-you-been-watching-fades)
- **The AV Club**, Emily St. James (70/100, inferred): St. James finds the series enjoyable and effectively spooky, despite predictable horror and uneven momentum. She especially praises Johnny Harris’s performance and the unexpectedly moving scenes between Sarah and Mark. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-fades-1798171153)
- **Variety**, Brian Lowry (30/100, inferred): Lowry finds the series murky and unpersuasive, with little incentive to continue watching. He praises its striking imagery and some interesting dialogue about life and death. [Read](https://variety.com/2012/tv/reviews/the-fades-1117946812/)
- **Den of Geek**, Emma Matthews (75/100, inferred): Matthews finds the first episode a surprisingly engrossing and promising start, despite familiar supernatural-hero conventions. She especially praises Iain De Caestecker’s performance and the atmospheric direction. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-fades-episode-1-review/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Jack Thorne
- **Creator:** Jack Thorne
- **Director:** Farren Blackburn, Tom Shankland
- **Screenplay:** Jack Thorne
- **Writer:** Jack Thorne
- **Cinematography:** Stephan Pehrsson
- **Editor:** Sam Williams, Matthew Tabern, Luke Dunkley
- **Music:** Paul Thomson
- **Production design:** Catrin Meredydd
- **Costume design:** Emma Fryer, Diana Moseley
- **Producer:** Caroline Skinner
- **Cast:** Iain De Caestecker as Paul Roberts; Daniel Kaluuya as Mac Armstrong; Johnny Harris as Neil Valentine; Natalie Dormer as Sarah Etches; Tom Ellis as Mark Etches; Lily Loveless as Anna Roberts; Sophie Wu as Jay; Claire Rushbrook as Meg Roberts
- **Runtime:** 1h 00m
- **Release (Australia):** 21 September 2011
- **Genres:** Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

## Where to watch in Australia

- Amazon Prime Video: streaming
- Apple TV: buy, sd

*Checked 2026-10-07.*

Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, FR, GB, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Ultraviolet* (1998): British vampires treated as a police matter, dry, clever and short; the model for this.
- *In the Flesh* (2013): The returning dead in a Lancashire village, written with the same sympathy for monsters.
- *Misfits* (2009): Young offenders get powers on a council estate; funnier, filthier, same sort of town.
- *Pulse* (2001): Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s dead stand still in doorways too, and are far more patient.
- *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* (1997), Fi1m 80: The chosen-one template this borrows from, with better jokes and a longer run. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/buffy-the-vampire-slayer.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-fades