Fog, fungi and deadly seas: the climate crisis is fuelling a wave of ‘eco thrillers’ –

A sudden outbreak of online searches for terms like “deadly fungus invasion”, “poisonous fog spores”, “toxic seafood” and “killer ice worms” might be worrying. It would, though, only be a reaction to the grim natural threats in the latest spate of hit television thrillers. Despite all the real-life horror in evidence across the planet, appetites for revelling in the fictional biological destruction of civilisation appear to be growing.

In the wake of The Last of Us, the acclaimed American drama series currently chronicling a lethal fungus attack, and following the malign fog enveloping Martin Compston in the Scottish sci-fi thriller The Rig, next comes The Swarm, a show with an equally terrifying premise from Game of Thrones’ producer Frank Doelger.

When the series premieres next Sunday in Germany, prior to being shown across Europe and Britain this spring, it will plunge audiences into a near future in which the sea takes its revenge on humanity. Soon the race is on for the world’s scientists to unravel the nature of the chain reaction that is wreaking havoc….