Netflix has added Temple, a powerful but largely forgotten drama starring Mark Strong who sets up an illegal clinic below a London tube station in a desperate bid to help his dying wife.
Having originally aired on Sky in 2019, the eight-part thriller now has the chance for a wider audience on Netflix UK — it's available in the US on MHz Choice which is a channel you can add via Prime Video.
Strong plays surgeon Daniel Milton, who can't bear to watch his wife Beth die from a life-threatening illness. So in a bid to find a cure, he sets up a clinic below Temple Underground station which offers treatment to anyone who can afford his secret medical service. He's helped by transport worker Lee (Line of Duty's Daniel Mays), who has access to the vast labyrinth of tunnels.
Setting up the story, Mark said at the time: "It begins with transport worker Lee rushing his friend Jamie to the clinic after he's been shot in a botched robbery. He's on the brink of death and Daniel saves him, but he's furious with Lee for bringing a thief on the run to the surgery. He thinks Jamie’s arrival will lead the authorities to the clinic and risk everything he’s worked so hard for, but eventually, he becomes a part of their underground family."
Talking about the morals of his character, Mark added: "He's a good man, but makes risky decisions that put people in danger for the love of his wife. There are times when the audience will support him and think he’s doing the right thing, but there are occasions when he might lose their confidence. It's the back-and-forth that I'm interested in. You push people to the edge and make them feel like he's terrible and then bring them back because they realize maybe he’s doing this for a good reason. It’s fun!"
Mark went to St Guy’s Hospital in London to watch a lung operation as part of his research. "I've never been to an environment like that and had no idea if I'd be able to cope — it's pretty visceral. But the thing I found most interesting was how casual they were while they were doing the major surgery. I asked what they hated most about surgery scenes on TV and they said, 'They're always playing Wagner and working in silence, which isn't how it is at all!':
Temple was adapted from the hit Scandi noir series Valkyrien and ran for two seasons. Netflix is a great place to discover British dramas that you may have missed when they originally aired. Among the recent dramas added have been Martin Freeman’s true crime drama A Confession and a personal favorite, The Hour, a brilliant BBC drama set in a 1950s newsroom and starring Ben Whishaw.
Temple is on Netflix now.
