Product Description

In the mini-series opener, Christopher Eccleston stars as Steve Baxter, a man who is found incoherent by the English roadside, mumbling that he's the Son of God. His old school friend, Judith (played by The Full Monty’s Leslie Sharp), thinks he’s gone mad.

Steve quickly discovers it's not easy to convince everyone that he's the Second Coming, and decides to stage a major event in a soccer stadium to gain the world’s notice. A miracle ensues, and he tells onlookers that mankind must write its own Third Testament or face Judgement Day in five days time. Pandemonium develops, inflamed by a full media-circus, as people try to understand what is happening. Excitement, fear, cynicism and violence erupt everywhere, as the drama speeds towards its surprisingly powerful conclusion.

• Written by Russell T. Davies, award-winning creator of the popular Showtime series Queer As Folk and Bob & Rose.
• Program first aired in the US on BBC America in October 2003.
• The ITV airing in Britain outdrew the TV debut of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and met with both critical acclaim and controversy.
• Stars Christopher Eccleston (The Others, Elizabeth, Cracker) and Lesley Sharp (Bob & Rose, The Full Monty.)
• Nominated for a mini-series award at the Monte Carlo TV Festival.
• DVD features director’s cut which includes additional 40 minutes of exclusive material.
• Presented in original widescreen format.
• Audio commentary by writer Russell T Davis and director Adrian Shergold.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44464 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 145 minutes

Amazon.com
Actor Christopher Eccleston (28 Days Later) is superb as a modern-day messiah in this captivating drama written by Russell T. Davies, author of the original British Queer as Folk series and the lovely Bob and Rose. Eccleston plays Steve Baxter, a mild-mannered, Manchester pub-crawler called one night to his true destiny as the second Son of God. After a couple of convincing miracles, the world looks to Steve for guidance, but he gives mixed signals: on one hand, he calls for a Third Testament to establish a foundation for living in the modern age; on the other, he predicts an imminent Judgment Day. The confusion causes mass mayhem, and Steve's disciples, especially an almost-but-not-quite love of his life (Lesley Sharp), try to make sense of the conflict while preventing devils, in human form, from undermining his mission. Ultimately, Davies's story concerns profound questions about human freedom and choice. --Tom Keogh

Los Angeles Times
"Producer Ann Harrison-Baxter has delivered a handsomely mounted effort that looks and feels more like a theatrical release..."

The Daily Mirror of London
"…One of the most original and thought-provoking dramas we will see all year."

Customer Reviews

Thought provoking drama
When TV drama is this intelligent, I suppose it's only to be expected that many people will miss the point or misinterpret it. The movie is not an ironic joke or an atheist manifesto. It's made quite clear that Steve Baxter is the messiah, the literal son of god made mortal in human flesh, with all the imperfections and limitations that implies. Yes, he's angry and offends people--just like the last messiah was angry and offended people.

Whether you agree with the final choice made by the protagonists or not, is not the point. As we see in the epilogue, even five years later they aren't sure whether they made the right choice themselves. The purpose of this TV movie is not to tell everyone what to think or to decide, it's to spark debate, to get people to ask questions.

Yes, it's flawed. Ironic, really, eh? The ending simply can't keep up the tension of the middle of the story--but then, once judgement day has been announced, you can hardly expect it to. Still, a great piece of drama. The sad thing is that this movie could never be shown on US TV, and it almost didn't make it to UK TV.

A New Hope
For all the theological babble the premise behind this TV drama is simple. What if God was one of us? Well his son anyway.

I saw this on TV about a year ago, and the fact that I am writing about it now means that for some reason it has stayed with me.

Watch it if you can and make you own mind up.

Thought provoking, but not satisfying.
The two-part television movie called the Second Coming appears to be influenced by one of the great poems of the 20th Century by William Butler Yeats. The following lines of Yeats' poem The Second Coming that are appopriate for the film are these: Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are filled with passionate insensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The revelation at hand is that Steve Baxter, the main character in the film, is the Son of God. Standing in the middle of a soccer field at night, he tries to tell the assembled crowd in Manchester, England that he is God's son. No one pays much attention to him until night turns into day at the soccer field. This miracle astounds the crowd and can be seen for many miles, drawing the attention of the media.

Baxter becomes an immediate, world-wide celebrity. He challenges the people of the world to send him something he calls The Third Testament, a new rule for mankind. Within the space of a couple of days thousands of testaments are sent to Manchester. Steve can't possibly read them all and quickly gives up trying. In frustration he announces that the end of the world is at hand. Soon after Steve's announcement, everywhere on earth people believe that Doomsday has arrived. As Yeats says, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

A day or so later Baxter is sitting in a pub with his friends when a bomb explodes, destroying the entire pub, but not Steve or any of his disciples. Steve believes that this second miracle is a sign that he is indestructible, and it appears for a time that he is correct.

This brief plot summary is all that I can share without spoiling the ending of the film. At this point in the story I was intrigued. The miracles I described did occur in the film. Baxter might be who he says he is. Unfortunately, as Yeats says, The Best (Steve and his disciples) lack all conviction while the worst (devils hiding in some of the citizens of Manchester) Are filled with passionate intensity.

The director of what turns out to be a most confusing plot seems unable to cope with Yeats' vision. From truly miraculous occurrences we move inexplicably to the conclusion that God is dead and we are on our own to make the best of things. How we arrive at this ending, given the evidence at hand, was a disappointment to me. Instead of a denial of the reality of the dramatized miracles, the director needed to be true to Yeats' last lines: And some rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

At its best, the film The Second Coming is thought provoking. At its worst it reduces a complex vision to a made for television sitcom.