Characters / Ultraviolet (1998)

This is a character sheet for the British TV series, not the live-action American film.

Michael Colefield

Played by: Jack Davenport

A police detective recruited into the squad after investigating into the disappearance of his best friend and fellow cop, Jack.

• Agent Scully: Tends to look for mundane explanations for everything until proven otherwise. Unfortunately, due to the show's nature they almost never pan out.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Michael clearly has feelings for Kirsty, but the secrets he now has to keep from her, and the fact she may still love Jack, make any form of relationship impossible.
• Always Save the Girl: Michael goes out of his way to protect Kirsty, even going behind his teammates' backs and seemingly risking the future of humanity just to save her.
• Audience Surrogate: As the newest member of the team, he discovers the rules of the world along with the viewers.
• Cassandra Truth: Often attributes human motives and emotions to the vampires' actions. The rest of the team usually dismiss him, but episodes 2 and 3 show there's an element of truth to it, with one vampire committing a revenge killing after being horribly burned by sunlight, while another seeks to turn his dying wife so they can be together again.
• Deadpan Snarker: The entire team are like that, but Michael gets a few winning lines.
  After Pearse clears him of accidentally shooting a human during an investigation
  Michael: So that's it, then? "Two Hail Marys and don't shoot any more civilians"?
• Did Not Get the Girl: Both of his potential Love Interests reject him at the end of the series.
• Easily Forgiven: Even he's shocked at the lack of repercussions after he accidentally shoots a paedophile who he thought was a vampire.
• The Heart: Subverted. Michael seems more caring compared to the rest of the team, but his empathy and compassion are often misguided, and ultimately used against him by the Code V's.
• Knight in Sour Armor: While he seemed to be reasonably well-adjusted in his former job as a police detective, the stress and moral dilemmas of his new workplace make him increasingly bitter and sarcastic, although no less determined to protect people.
• Naïve Newcomer: Seen as such by the rest of the team, especially when suggesting ideas such as that vampires are capable of love.
• Refusal of the Call: At first, telling Pearse he has no interest in joining the team, despite having encountered the Code V threat face-to-face. Changes his mind after the true magnitude of the issue is explained to him.
• Reluctant Warrior: Struggles with constant moral qualms regarding the team's goals and methods.
• Token Good Teammate: What he often feels like with regards to the team's methods and views of Code Vs.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Apparently. To be fair, although he did trade with the vampires behind the others’ backs, he tricked them and didn't provide what they wanted.

Vaughan Rice

Played by: Idris Elba

The main muscle of the squad. An aloof ex-soldier.

• All Love Is Unrequited: Towards Angie. He Cannot Spit It Out, she is still hung up about her late husband, and nothing comes out of it.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Almost shoots himself rather than fall into the hands of the leeches. Lucky he thought of something else.
• The Big Guy: The only military-trained member of the core team, and also the most willing to use violence.
• Cannot Spit It Out: His feelings for Angie.
• Everyone Has Standards: Ruthless and unfeeling, even he's visibly perturbed when Pearse elects to frame a deceased priest as a paedophile in order to spare his killer - a young boy unknowingly infected with vampirism - from jailtime.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Nicely demonstrated on Colin the pedophile in episode 4.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Genuinely cares for Angie, and starts really warming up to Mike towards the end of the series. Also shown when he decides to bring flowers to the paralyzed girl on episode 2.
• Kick the Dog: Literally, with the pedophile's dog on episode 4. It's fair to note that the dog was attacking him at the time, but Vaughan's callous attitude and the dog's pitiful whine still make it count.
• Hollywood Atheist: Although nothing is done to change this.
• Scary Black Man: Big, menacing, occasionally violent and played by Idris Elba.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The official reason for his discharge from the Army is PTSD following a friendly fire incident. The actual incident was different, and while it was very traumatic, it’s unclear how much he really suffers PTSD and how much of it was just a cover story to let him join the squad.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Seems like one at first. Has Hidden Depths.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After his uncaring response as to who's going to tell the paralysed girlfriend of the victim they've just found, Michael gives him a short but sharp one of these. It actually seems to have some effect, given that later in the episode he goes to do it himself without any prompting, even buying her flowers to soften the blow. Too bad she's a vampire by that point.
  Michael: You really don't give a shit, do you?
• The Woobie: By the end of the series, everyone in the team has betrayed Vaughan’s trust in some way.

Dr. Angela March

Played by: Susannah Harker

The scientist and doctor of the squad.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Possibly has the most difficult back story of all the main characters.
• Deadpan Snarker: As with the rest of the team.
  Pearse: (referring to a captive vampire) How's the patient?
  Angela: Still dead.
• Everyone Has Standards: When she's interviewing a kid who's killed his school priest, she's understandably suspicious given the kid's unknowingly infected with vampirism. However, when Pearse shows up to intimidate the boy - who, thanks to the vampirism, is unwittingly terrified of anything to do with the Faith - she immediately puts a stop to it, understanding the boy is merely a victim.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Offs a Code V from well over a hundred feet in the final episode. With a pistol.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Angie’s ruthless professionalism comes off as cold, but we get glimpses of a kinder personality underneath.
• My Beloved Smother: Angie keeps tight control on her remaining daughter's life, forbidding her to leave home after dark and apparently not giving her much privacy. Not that she lacks good reasons, mind.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Averted. While being the team's only scientist, Angie is a physician specializing in hematology and is never shown doing anything science-y which is not related to her field of expertise.
• The Smart Guy: Responsible for the scientific and forensic side of investigations.
• Staking the Loved One: For her husband and one of her daughters.

Pearse Harman

Played by: Philip Quast

A former Catholic priest and the leader of the squad.

• Agent Mulder: Always the first to suspect Code V involvement in everything. By the series' very nature, he's usually right.
• Badass Preacher: Or Church Militant, depends on whom you ask.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments.
  Michael: So that's it, then? "Two Hail Marys and don't shoot any more civilians"?
  Pearse: You can wear a hair shirt if it makes you feel better.
• Death by Irony: Well, Terminal Disease by Irony. Pearse might have gotten his lymphoma from overexposure to the sun.
  Pearse: The Sun giveth, the Sun taketh away.
• Knight Templar: The most ruthlessly determined of the team to rid the world of the Code V menace, seeing his job as a "vocation". He also refuses to listen to any suggestion that they might not all be completely evil. Judging by the finale, he's right.
• The Leader: Of the Code V extermination squad.
• No Medication for Me: Unusually, used with cancer medication. He claims he wants to avoid cognitively impairing side effects while on investigation; he just might be considering other options.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Delivered to Paul Hoyle, after an episode-long Hannibal Lecture.
  Pearse: Thank you for your concern. I’m spoken for.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The vampires accuse him of this. Judging by the ending, they’re probably lying.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Discovers mid-series that he suffers from slow-growing but incurable type of lymphoma.

Frances Pembroke

Played by: Fiona Dolman

Michael's ex whom he constantly turns to for help and information.

• All Love Is Unrequited: She might still have some feelings for Michael, who doesn't seem to see her as much more than a friend and useful contact.
• Amicable Exes: Towards Mike, although he is less so towards her. We're never told what happened between them to cause this.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Michael's Archie and Kirsty's Betty. Ironically, at the end of the series she is the one urging Michael to behave sensibly while Kirsty lures him (unintentionally) into danger.
• Friend on the Force: She's Michael's Friend on the Intelligence Service.
• Get Out!: In the final episode, when Mike finally asks for something she feels she can't do. (Namely, helping him trade an unknown and possibly dangerous substance in exchange for Kirsty's life).
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tells Kirsty when they meet to leave Michael alone. While she may be doing it to twist the knife in for her love rival, the final episodes show it would have been better for everyone if Kirsty had listened to her.
• Troll: Tells Mike she thinks Kirsty and Jacob are intimate - then admits she made it up to annoy him given his obvious attraction to Kirsty.

Kirsty Maine

Played by: Colette Brown

Jack's fiancée. After his disappearance, her constant efforts to discover what happened to him put Michael in an uncomfortable position.

• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Michael’s Archie and Frances’ Veronica. She clearly dislikes the haughty and sophisticated Frances and believes (justly) that Frances looks down on her.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Michael's rescue of her, while risking his job and possibly his life, earns him a slap on the face for his trouble. To be fair, she was probably mad about him resurrecting Jack to show her what he's become rather than about the rescue itself.
• Damsel in Distress: Unknowingly until the very last moment.
• Hot Teacher: Works as an elementary school teacher.
• The Load: Her entire character arc is making Michael's life more difficult in one way or another.
• The Woobie: Her husband-to-be disappears on their wedding day, their best friend Michael lies to her about what actually happened and stonewalls her at every turn, her quest to find answers leads to her being used as a pawn by the Code Vs - and after Michael then resurrects the now-vampiric Jack to show her what he's become, her ex swiftly shows her how little she means to him. Kirsty brings some of it on herself to be sure, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her by the end of the series.

Jack Beresford

Played by: Stephen Moyer

Michael's best friend and Kirsty's fiancé. His disappearance at his wedding day eventually leads Michael to discover the truth about Code V's.

• Dirty Cop: Jack wasn't all that even as a human.
• Evil Former Friend: Was Michael's closest friend, although he was bent even before turning.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tells Kirsty to get a life on being resurrected when he realises how long she's been investigating his disappearance. Even Pearse tells her it's sound advice.
• Kick the Dog: Upon being resurrected, immediately uses Kirsty, his former fiance - who's spent the entire series trying to find out what happened to him - as a human shield. Then, on working out why she's there, tells her to get a life.
• Pet the Dog: After he's resurrected in the finale, tells Michael he owes him and that he'll leave Kirsty alone.
• Runaway Groom: Disappears the night before his wedding day, leaving his would-be wife and the wedding guests to wait for him in the church until it becomes clear he isn't showing up.
• Smug Snake: As a Code V, Jack is smug, mean and manipulative, but ultimately he's a pawn that gets taken down fast.
• Transhuman Treachery: With a side dish of human treachery.
• Not Quite Dead: Resurrected in the finale.
• One-Liner: "Get a life."

Jacob Kenalt

Played by: Thomas Lockyer

A tabloid journalist recruited by Kirsty to help her investigate into Jack's disappearance.

• Conspiracy Theorist: Looking for government conspiracies is apparently his specialty, and why Kirsty turns to him in the first place.
• Face–Heel Turn: Seemed to be more-or-less decent as a human, and willing to help Kirsty. As with all Code V's, once he is turned he quickly signs up for their cause.
• I Have Your Wife: Well, he has an unrequited love interest...
• Intrepid Reporter: An investigative journalist, although with a less-than-sterling reputation.
• Smug Snake: When he drops his pretenses.
• Transhuman Treachery: As poor Kirsty eventually learns.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: What happens when a Code V eats human food?

John Doe/ Paul Hoyle

Played by: Corin Redgrave

A senior Code V captured 'alive' by the squad.

• Faux Affably Evil: He's unfailingly polite and well-spoken, presents himself as an old friend of Angie's husband and is able to argue the vampires' case to tempt Pearse with remarkable clarity and reasoning. However, once the magnitude of the Code Vs' plans is revealed, it becomes obvious he's this.

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