Pilgrim - Series 1 and 2

Image from BBC Radio website.

“Of all the stories told in these islands, few are more strange as that of William Palmer.  Cursed, apparently, on the road to Canterbury in the Spring of 1185 for denying the presence of the other world by the King of the Grey Folk, or Faerie, himself, and compelled to walk from that day to this between the worlds of Magic and of Men, and subsequently known in all the strange and wonderful lore of the mysterious William Palmer… as Pilgrim.”

Taking a bit of a break from my regular audiobooks, I've been alternating between the Big Finish Companion Chronicles and the BBC dark fantasy radio series Pilgrim. Broadcast in seven series of linked 45-minute plays between 2009 and 2015, Pilgrim follows the travails of the eponymous Pilgrim, a rare book dealer named William Palmer who has lived for more than eight centuries, having been cursed by the King of the Grey Folk for telling him that Christianity would sweep away all the old superstitions, and assigned to act as intermediary between the human and occult worlds.

Although young in appearance, Pilgrim is an ancient and world-weary being, unable to withstand the years as the Grey Folk do because he is still one of the 'hot-bloods'. The terminology of the setting, Grey Folk and hot-bloods, emphasises the central conflict of the series. The Grey Folk are ancient and immortal, but pale and cold by comparison to humanity. Without their detached nature, Palmer struggles with his endless existence, as well as his thankless duty to police the borderlands between humanity and the colossal power of the other world, armed only with a wide knowledge base and a fundamental, but not specific, indestructibility (he mentions a run in with a fallen angel that left him recuperating for a century.)

Series 1 loosely focuses on his search for fellow-immortal Joseph of Arimethea, who might hold the key to ending his existence. The Grey Folk want him to keep going because - as we are often told - the King loves him. His real anchor, however, is his daughter Doris, half-Grey herself, but still an old lady by the time of the series. In episode 3 he rescues a young werewolf named Freya from a powerful secret society who hunt unique creatures. Freya wants him to involve her in his work, but the one thing we learn about Pilgrim is that he is pretty dedicated to being a martyred loner. As a result, Freya goes off in a huff in early series 2, and with Doris departing in episode 8, we're out of female leads, but the non-Pilgrim cast is highly mobile, so that isn't to say that series 3 won't bring in new ones.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Pilgrim is the degree to which he doesn't actually resolve things. Maybe half of the stories are resolved by his clever use of his understanding of the other world, but the rest come down to a regular human making a sacrifice or quasi-Biblical figure being a badass. Pilgrim is not a badass. He is ultracompetent against human opponents (but just the worst in most social situations,) but little more than an ant against the Grey Folk, unless he can invoke one of their own rules.

Pilgrim was that rare gem, an entirely serious British fantasy series. The BBC has a tendency to be a little ashamed of its SF and fantasy output, and to focus on a particular kind of radio, but Pilgrim ran for just shy of thirty episodes, all or most written by series creator Sebastian Baczkiewicz, despite not being a sitcom or excruciating 'comedy drama'. I've got five more series to get through, although I think I'm going to hit up another audiobook first.