“This is not what you think it is.”
The Midwich Cuckoos is being remade for a modern audience – but it sounds just as terrifying as ever.
Based on the 1957 novel of the same name by John Wyndham, the Midwich Cuckoos tells the story of a sleepy English town that is turned upside-down when a mysterious event causes all women of childbearing age to suddenly become pregnant.
When everyone in Midwich falls unconscious they awake to find that something strange has happened, something totally unprecedented for a town where, famously, nothing ever happens.
Starring Keeley Hawes, Synnøve Karlsen, Max Beesley, and more, the sci-fi/horror series considers the aftermath of an experience that leaves all women of child-bearing age wondering how they got pregnant, and what they’re about to give birth to.
Hawes appeared at Sky’s 2022 showcase earlier this week, where the company unveiled its largest slate of TV shows and films. The Bodyguard star and creator David Farr said that the series’ changes from the source material include a new focus on the female side of the story (Wyndham’s novel originally had a male detective at the helm).
Farr previously said: “I first read The Midwich Cuckoos when I was 12. I was living in a small town in 1980s Britain. Everything about the book rang true to me and terrified me.
“An invasion of a small community by a hostile and ruthless force. Apparently innocent children as a force of huge malevolent power. It got under my skin.
“As I’ve grown older, the story has never ceased to exert a grip. The idea that we may birth our own destruction is so simple and frightening. That as a mother or a father, the being we love most in the world may turn on us. It’s the stuff of nightmares.”
The Midwich Cuckoos debuts on Sky Max and NOW on June 2. You can check out the trailer below.
