Messiah is a British television drama series, broadcast on the BBC One network and produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland, although the series itself is set in England. Made up of a series of occasional serials, the first, with two parts subtitled The First Killings & The Reckoning, was broadcast in 2001. It has been followed by Messiah 2: Vengeance is Mine (2003), Messiah III: The Promise (2004), Messiah IV: The Harrowing (2005) and most recently Messiah V: The Rapture (2008). The original production was based on a novel by Boris Starling: the subsequent installments have been written directly for television. Starling has a cameo as a murder victim's corpse in the first serial.

A crime series, it follows the investigations of DCI Red Metcalfe, who often investigates particularly gruesome murders. Metcalfe is played by Scottish actor Ken Stott, and the other main regulars in the series are Kate Beauchamp (Frances Grey), Duncan Warren (Neil Dudgeon) and Metcalfe's wife Susan (Michelle Forbes). The deafness of Forbes' character necessitated both her and Stott learning British Sign Language for their characters' frequent exchanges.

Aunt Kathryn, just losing her own son to violence, decides to write a story for her Easter dinner guests. She reads the story to her selfish nieces and nephews, putting them into the characters of the gospels to, maybe, change their ways for the better. Written by Kathleen Fitzgerald

Journalist Frazer Truick (Craig Fairbrass) investigates the mysterious death of the brother of trainee journalist Rachel Morris (Rowena King). Delving deeper, Truick becomes convinced that the tragedy was murder, committed by a pagan cult led by nationalist politician David Keller (Jon Finch). But as the evidence unfolds, things take on a more sinister and potentially lethal significance as Truick becomes embroiled in devil worship, witchcraft and ultimately human sacrifice! Written by Jinga

CAMEO(Boris Starling): The victim who is skinned alive and found sitting in a chair.

Michelle Forbes had to learn sign language for her part and did so within six days.