The pilot movie for a proposed series, 'The Sight' is written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and was an American/British co-production between Sky and Fox Television.
Andrew McCarthy plays American architect Michael Lewis, who's in London to help renovate an old building. As he's driving through the capital one night, an elderly woman steps in front of his car and is killed. Lewis subsequently discovers that the woman was not only suffering from terminal cancer, but was also the owner of the building he's working on. Later, the woman (Honor Blackman) appears to him, reveals she had 'the sight' (the ability to interact with the dead) and that he has it too. It had laid dormant within him, but has now been activated by her death (which, together with his arrival in the UK, she had engineered). Lewis is now the earthy agent of all the ghosts wandering unnoticed among the living, unable to find rest until those responsible for their deaths are punished.
The remainder of the episode has Lewis investigating the murders of several children, leading to the discovery of a copycat serial killer and climaxing with a quite exciting confrontation in the cavernous London sewers. Other cast members include Amanda Redman, Alexander Armstrong, and a scene-stealing performance from Jessica Oyelowo (who would later have a recurring role in the British horror/supernatural series 'Hex') as Isobel, a flirty and teasing ghost who acts as Lewis's main contact with the spirits.
It's been seven years since I saw 'The Sight', but some sequences remain lodged in my memory: the ghost of a little girl attending her own funeral, casually walking along the lid of the coffin in her wellington boots; Lewis's encounter with a young woman (played by Helen Lyons) who died in the Blitz and has been riding the Underground ever since; Lewis watching a group of children playing in mudflats next to the Thames, and realising with a shock that they're all the killer's victims; and the little girl ghost's reluctance to tell Lewis what the murderer said to her as he killed her, "because it's rude." Throughout the pilot, Lewis starts receiving visions - psychic flashes showing the world either dead or in ruins - and the final scene has a man and a woman (the former played by the marvellous actor Jason Issacs, a regular in Anderson's films) watching Lewis from a distance and commenting that "he doesn't know how special he is." Clearly all foreshadowing for the series to follow.
The pilot obtained good ratings for Sky, and a series was indeed green-lit. I remember an interview with Amanda Redman in which she mentioned that she'd signed a contract to be a regular cast member. But something went wrong and it never happened. If it had, 'The Sight' would have been Sky's first homegrown fantasy series, an honour that instead went to 'Hex'.
The pilot episode of 'The Sight' still gets repeated occasionally on Sky's various channels. It's worth watching, if only to wonder what might have been, if the series had proceeded.
