The Last Train (TV series)

The Last Train, broadcast in Canada under the working title Cruel Earth, is a British television serial consisting of six episodes. A post-apocalyptic drama, it first aired on the ITV network in 1999. The series was written by Matthew Graham and produced for ITV by Granada Television. It was released on DVD in the UK in 2005 by Network Distributing, and it has not been broadcast in the United States.

The story begins when a group of strangers traveling by train from London to Sheffield are cryonically frozen after a crash inside a tunnel. The freezing agent is a canister of gas carried by a passenger, Harriet Ambrose. When they awaken, they find the United Kingdom in ruins. They initially believe only weeks, then months, and later 14 years have passed, but eventually discover the devastating truth: 52 years have elapsed. They are among the few survivors of an apocalyptic asteroid strike, left alone in the British countryside. It is revealed that Harriet knew of the impending asteroid and was en route to a secret government project called Ark, where her boyfriend, scientist Jonathan Geddes, worked. The group agrees to accompany her in search of Ark, hoping to find other survivors and safety. Along the way, they face dangers including feral dog packs and hostile tribes descended from the original survivors.

The main characters include the train passengers, with supporting roles played by actors such as Ralph Brown (Jonathan Geddes), Kenneth Colley (Mark), and Deborah Findlay (Gillian), among others. Episodes are numbered one through six. Production details note that the railway depot depicted as Sheffield station is actually the derelict Manchester Mayfield station. The church in episode two is Gorton Monastery. The camp in episode four is an old Pontin's holiday camp in Prestatyn, North Wales. The village "Mareby" in episode five is Wardle in Greater Manchester. The Ark structure in episode six is Thorpe Marsh Power Station near Doncaster, which was being demolished at the time. In the United States, Fox Network purchased the rights to produce a new version titled *The Last Train*, but the project did not progress beyond the pilot stage.