{"id":122094,"date":"2024-09-07T10:02:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T00:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=122094"},"modified":"2024-09-07T10:03:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T00:03:45","slug":"inside-nightsleeper-tvs-nailbiting-new-train-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=122094","title":{"rendered":"Inside Nightsleeper, TV\u2019s nailbiting new train thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019ve all been stuck on a train. Whether it\u2019s broken down or delayed due to pesky leaves on the line, it\u2019s a teeth-gnashing waste of time. But what if the train weren\u2019t stationary? What if it were hurtling along at high speed for six terrifying hours? Oh and what if it didn\u2019t have a driver? That\u2019s the set-up for Nightsleeper, the BBC\u2019s new blockbuster real-time thriller. Like Speed<\/a> meets 24<\/a>, with a dash of Bodyguard<\/a> and Hijack<\/a>, it\u2019s a non-stop service from Tension Central to Plot Twist Parkway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyberterrorists have seized control of an overnight service from Glasgow to London and are driving the train remotely \u2013 a crime known as \u201chackjacking\u201d. Leading the fightback are two strangers: Joe (played by Joe Cole), an off-duty police officer who happens to be a passenger on the train, and Abby (Alexandra Roach), acting technical director at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) who keeps in constant contact by phone from NCSC HQ. Across six propulsive episodes, our heroes race to beat the ticking clock and get everyone off board safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nightsleeper is created and written by Nick Leather, who won a Bafta for true-crime drama\u00a0Murdered for Being Different<\/a>. Speaking via video call from his shed office in Manchester, Leather sits in front of a map of the UK rail network and a blueprint of the train (\u201cI was determined to use every inch of it \u2013 every nook, cranny and toilet\u201d) \u2013 the legacy of having worked on this idea for the past eight years. He fondly calls it \u201cour\u00a0crazy train show\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved 24, so always wanted to do something in real time,\u201d he explains. \u201cI also fancied doing a locked-room mystery, so I wondered if you could combine them. Lock the room, then resolve it in real time. And what if the room was moving? I wanted something quintessentially British. What do we talk about more than anything else? Trains and weather. For a six-hour journey, the sleeper train fitted the bill perfectly. It\u2019s like playing with a giant train set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leather was inspired by his own experience on a broken-down train. \u201cNothing as glamorous as the sleeper,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt was the Newton-le-Willows to Manchester line \u2013 only a 20-minute journey but we got stuck halfway for hours with no phone coverage and an out-of-order loo. What fascinated me was that for the first hour, nobody spoke. Then two people started arguing about the music emitted from someone\u2019s headphones. Others joined in but rather than turning into a nightmare, it opened up conversations. There was lots of piss-taking and gallows humour. Somebody was on their way to a party with a bottle of wine. They opened it and slowly drank the whole bottle. It all fed into the script.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the passengers in Nightsleeper raid the drinks trolley. Some turn on each other. Some form friendships. One may be armed and in league with the hackers. The transport minister is on board but she\u2019s useless and self-serving. Did Leather base this blond female politician on a real-life figure? \u201cYou\u2019re getting me on to dodgy ground,\u201d he grins. \u201cLet\u2019s just say she\u2019s called Liz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that such a hackjacking is chillingly plausible. \u201cBecause rail companies are so profit-driven, they don\u2019t spend much on security,\u201d explains Leather. \u201cThey just cross their fingers that nothing will ever happen. We got three experts in a room to see if our premise was possible: an ethical hacker, a railway designer and a former government cyber expert who specialised in critical infrastructure. I feared they\u2019d point out insurmountable obstacles and stop the idea in its tracks. In fact, within two hours, they said: \u2018Between us, we could do this. We could hack a train.\u2019 I had mixed feelings about that. I didn\u2019t enjoy my next train journey, but for work purposes I was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cole, whose recent credits include Anne Frank drama A Small Light and action thriller Gangs of London<\/a>, has felt plenty of rail frustration himself. \u201cEverybody in the UK has had negative experiences,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve made plenty of shows up north \u2013 including Peaky Blinders and The Ipcress File \u2013 so have spent many a time trapped on trains. It felt so relatable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u201cYou can really let your aggression out in this job sometimes\u2019: Joe Cole.\u00a0Photograph: BBC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His character is equally easy to sympathise with: \u201cHe\u2019s a reluctant hero. Leadership gets thrust upon him and it becomes clear he\u2019s reluctant for a reason. But he has to step up and try to lead this merry band to survival. He\u2019s a bit Jack Bauer, a bit Jason Bourne. There\u2019s a Keanu-in-Speed vibe but with a British flavour. My character might be a cop but he\u2019s no Tom\u00a0Cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roach became so intertwined with Abby that she\u2019s kept her cropped haircut. \u201cIt\u2019s rare to find an action-packed thriller with such well-drawn characters,\u201d she says. \u201cAbby\u2019s an ex-hacker with spiky energy and rebellious spirit. She doesn\u2019t quite fit into that government agency world. She\u2019s an outsider in every way \u2013 how she dresses, her short hair, her south Wales accent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She may be a familiar face from the likes of police procedural No Offence<\/a>, conspiracy thriller Utopia<\/a> and Welsh crime drama The Light in the Hall<\/a> but this is a breakout role for Roach. The fact that her character suffers panic attacks felt apt. \u201cI brought my own anxiety to it! I haven\u2019t led a big BBC show before, so it\u2019s a step up in my career, just like Abby in her line of work. At times there was no acting required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Cole trapped on the train and Roach running the NCSC nerve centre, Nightsleeper\u2019s leads don\u2019t meet face to face. Instead, there\u2019s lots of phone acting. \u201cI loved the intimacy of being in each other\u2019s ears,\u201d says Leather. \u201cIt\u2019s a real human connection in the midst of this cyber thriller.\u201d Creating chemistry wasn\u2019t easy, considering their scenes were filmed separately. \u201cTo my relief, Joe was an absolute star and came in on Alex\u2019s days to read his lines. That way, it didn\u2019t always have to be a script supervisor filling in the other end of the phone call. It helped build rapport and warmth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair end up singing Kate Nash\u2019s Foundations to each other. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a bit cheesy with a side of halloumi fries but it\u2019s a lovely little interlude,\u201d chuckles Cole. \u201cA cute way of connecting our characters. That song came out when me and Alex were in college. The fact that we both know the lyrics demonstrates that we\u2019re a similar age, from similar worlds, and have an understanding. Hey, maybe Kate Nash will go to number one after this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian Review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This terrifying real-time mystery set on a train hurtling from Glasgow to London takes the nerve-jangling suspense of 24 and Bodyguard and speeds them up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":122095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,9183,12142],"tags":[9693,13182,5364,4554],"class_list":["post-122094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","category-rail-travel","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-glasgow","tag-london","tag-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122098,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122094\/revisions\/122098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/122095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}