Bodies, Stephen Graham’s 2023 thriller, has now arrived on Netflix, following four detectives Hasan (Amaka Oskafor), Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), Hillinghead (Kyle Soller), and Maplewood (Shira Haas) as they investigate an odd case.
The cops are all looking into the death of a single unnamed guy discovered nude on a London street, killed by a single gunshot to the eye but with no exit wound.
What’s the catch? The investigators come from four distinct eras: 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2023.
While the eight-part series has certainly piqued the interest of Netflix subscribers, some have wondered who the dedication in the first episode is to.
The first episode closes with: ‘In memory of Si Spencer 1961-2021.’
Who is Si Spencer? Reason behind Bodies episode one dedication
Si Spencer is a comic book writer and television dramatist who released an eight-issue graphic novel series of the same name in June 2014.
DC/Vertigo released the limited series monthly till 2015, with Spencer collaborating with four different artists.
Spencer served as a playwright for Grange Hill, EastEnders, and The Bill, in addition to being a comic book writer whose other major work includes Crisis.
He died of heart failure in February 2021, at the age of 59.
Spencer died in August, only months before his 60th birthday, and just before the script was approved, with writer Paul Tomalin explaining how he wanted to keep authentic to Spencer’s tale.
‘I met him on Torchwood,’ Paul explained. I was a newbie on the show, and he was a more seasoned writer, so I always saw him as this really honest, very lively person wearing this Hawaiian shirt.
‘He never left my mind, so when I realised he wrote Bodies, I was like, “Holy s**t, that guy!”‘
Paul continued to RadioTimes: ‘We only met once the pilot had been commissioned by Netflix.
‘He was over the moon that people were excited by it, and I don’t know if he remembered me or not from the Torchwood days but I think he was really happy we were sticking to the characters, which we were, and sticking to the themes, and I hope by the enthusiasm he could see in me for the story, that he knew it was in, if nothing else, faithful hands.
‘I wrote the pilot and he passed away just after the script was green-lit, so I was very much robbed of the chance to speak to him more about it.
‘So what I ended up doing was going through the plethora of internet interviews he’d done about Bodies, so I got to kind of know him better just through research about the stuff he’d said and the seeds he’s left just through references.’
Bodies is available to watch on Netflix.