Doctor Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt), a married father of two, has abandoned his family without explanation to live in a heavily fortified basement flat.

Reimer observes that Jackman's alter ego exhibits rage, heightened senses, greatly superior strength and speed, and a more playful and flirtatious manner.

Fearing for his family's safety, he chose to isolate himself from them, but he cannot bring himself to cut off all contact, and visits his wife Claire (Gina Bellman).

Unbeknownst to him, the team works for his former employers at the biotechnology firm, Klein and Utterson, and is directed by his friend Peter Syme (Denis Lawson).

Flashbacks into Jackman's own life show his Hyde first manifesting fully during a seaside holiday with Claire, after the pair were accosted by hooligans.

As Jackman watches horrified, the powerless, tired, grey-haired Sophia transforms into her own version of the Hyde persona, the feral, red-headed Ms Utterson.

Jeffrey Tayor of Stagescreen Productions had the idea of a modern version of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the mid-1990s.

[6] He returned to England from the west coast of the United States and joined with Hartswood Films when Elaine Cameron was scouting for ideas for a supernatural thriller.

[6][7] Cameron then approached Steven Moffat for a script, and a six-part series was commissioned by the BBC's Jane Tranter and John Yorke in November 2005.

[6] Moffat explicitly describes the series as a sequel, rather than an adaptation, stating the Jekyll of the original story really existed, and Jackman is his "modern-day descendant dealing with the same problems".

[13] Moffat initially named the character Jekyll rather than Jackman, but found it cumbersome to constantly explain that the book had not been written in this alternate universe.

[6] The scene between Tom and Katherine was expanded slightly in the sixth episode to keep their relationship active to facilitate a second series.

In an August 2007 interview, Moffat told Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger that he had a sequel written for the miniseries "should the BBC be interested".

[19] The production team decided Nesbitt's two characters would be mainly differentiated over a change in performance rather than by extensive make-up because they wanted Hyde to be able to walk around in public without attracting attention.

[22] Moffat initially doubted Gina Bellman's suitability for the role of Claire Jackman because he associated her too much with Jane Christie, the character she had played in his sitcom Coupling.

[24] During the second filming block, Mark Gatiss briefly joined the cast, playing the small but important role of Robert Louis Stevenson in flashback scenes in episode five.

It took an hour of make-up each day to turn Nesbitt into Hyde; a hairpiece lowered his hairline and prosthetics were added to his chin, nose and ear lobes.

[13] Filming began in September 2006 with the zoo sequence from the second episode, in which Benjamin's team have set Tom up to force out Hyde by placing his son, Eddie, in the lion's den.

[2][28] Writing the sequence at a late stage in the production, Moffat wanted to compare Hyde's natural instinct to kill to that of a lion.

[28] The Norman Foster-designed building in Chertsey, Surrey, which then housed the European Headquarters of video game designer and publisher Electronic Arts, was used as The Klein & Utterson Institute.

The production team had twelve days to shoot each episode, which director Douglas Mackinnon says was the biggest challenge of the project.

Director Matt Lipsey recalls that the team struggled to cut the extra material whilst maintaining the integrity of the episode.

Certain edits were made to the United Kingdom broadcasts in order to remove language unsuitable for Saturday night BBC One audiences.

"[11] James Jackson of The Times rated the first episode four out of five stars, calling Nesbitt's performance as Hyde "as entertainingly [over the top] as a dozen Doctor Who villains, with a palpable sense of menace to boot".

[34] The Daily Telegraph's Stephen Pile criticised the script for "veering between Hammer horror and larky humour" and for being "cheesy".

[36] David Cornelius of DVDTalk was full of compliments for the series, summing up its review with the statement "six episodes, 300 minutes, not a single one of them wasted.

[37] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commenting on the series being part of their 2008 line-up, said "This classic horror tale has been given a modern make-over that will leave you on the edge of your seat and begging for more.

[38] Nesbitt was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his roles.

The set also contains two documentaries: "Anatomy of a Scene" focuses upon the production of the zoo sequence in episode two, while "The Tale Retold" covers the evolution of the series.

[45] In May 2016, Variety reported that Lionsgate will develop an adaptation of the BBC miniseries with Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman producing through their A Very Good Production banner and scribe team Anthony Bagarozzi & Charles Mondry writing.