A newly-released series starring Eddie Redmayne has been crowned one of the best shows of 2024 by viewers.
The series in question is The Day of the Jackal, which sees Redmayne take a rare turn as a villainous assassin tasked with killing tech CEOs and influential people across Europe.
The series, which has new episodes streaming weekly on Sky and Now TV, is based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel of the same name, which has been turned into two films, The Day of the Jackal (1973) and The Jackal (1997).
Redmayne’s The Jackal utilises a wide variety of disguises and aliases using prosthetics to keep himself hidden from the authorities. At the climax of the series, he is tracked by MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch), who is a firearms expert determined to catch him.
The series is currently on its seventh episode – and viewers have been quick to crown it the “best” of 2024.
“The Day of the Jackal has to be one of the best series I’ve watched in a longgggg time,” said one viewer online, as another added they are “addicted” to the series.
“If the make-up department for The Day of The Jackal doesn’t win every single award imaginable this year, then you know it’s rigged,” said another.
Another viewer claimed that along with Cross, a newly-released American crime thriller starring Aldis Hodge and Ryan Eggold, The Day of the Jackal is up there with the best shows of the year.
In The Independent’s annual ranking of the best series released in 2024,The Day of the Jackal came in 10th place, out of 20 shows. TV critic Nick Hilton ranked Netflix’s Baby Reindeer as the best series of the year, with Shōgun and Mr and Mrs Smith following in second and third place.
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Speaking about playing an assassin for the first time, Redmayne recently told The Independent that he was attracted to shooting the series in Croatia and Budapest in the summer months because it was a different setting to the period films he has worked on in the past.
“There have been many years when I’d watch The White Lotus and go, ‘Why do I never get those jobs and hang out on beautiful beaches?’,” Redmayne laughs. “So I wouldn’t want to say that was the reason for taking the job, but it was pretty high up there. I’ve spent years playing Elizabethans and Victorians, or people in the 1920s or 30s. This was the first contemporary thing I think I’ve done in years.”
“And it was nice to be able to just whip on a pair of trousers and a shirt every day, versus lots of 26-piece tweed suits.”