Jekyll and Hyde: Over 200 viewers complain about 'violent' pre-watershed ITV series

Ten-part series Jekyll and Hyde aired on Sunday night at 6.30pm, before The X Factor and Downton Abbey

Tom Bateman as Dr Robert Jekyll in ITV's Jekyll and Hyde (ITV)

When parents plonked down on the sofa with their kids to watch the new Jekyll and Hyde on Sunday evening, few expected the action to be quite so violent, gory and downright terrifying.

The ITV series began well before the watershed at 6.30pm last night, starring Tom Bateman, Richard E Grant and Natalie Gumede. Since then, media regulator Ofcom has received 212 complaints about its graphic content.

Viewers quickly realised that this wasn’t the tea-time show they had been anticipating. One scene saw a little girl have her neck stamped on, while another featured a man being beaten to death.

Twitter was soon flooded with tweets from people questioning the air time given to the programme, which is scheduled to run for ten episodes.

The storyline is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 short story, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but the setting has been brought forward to London in the Thirties, with Jekyll’s grandson on a mission to unearth the truth about his mysterious past.

Writer Charlie Higson sparked outrage when asked about how parents may respond to Jekyll and Hyde last week. “Kids of love horror, they love gore and death and violence and monsters and all that stuff,” he said.

“Some of the parents might get a little upset and some of the smaller kids but you know, f**k them.”

Higson, who has three children himself, later tried to clarify his comments by arguing that children were now much more exposed to graphic content online, making television boring in comparison. He admitted that his original script had been toned down by bosses.

Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code states that violence “must not be broadcast before the watershed unless there is editorial justification”.

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Ofcom's spokesperson said: “Ofcom has received 212 complaints about Jekyll and Hyde, which aired on ITV on Sunday. We will assess these complaints before deciding whether to investigate or not.”

ITV is yet to respond to our request for comment, but a warning was issued before Jekyll and Hyde aired, advising parents that younger children may find some scenes scary.

Rating figures for the opening episode peaked at 3.6 million viewers.