The Nightsleeper departs this weekend, and its creator invites us along for the ride.
A real-time thriller about a speeding train heading from Glasgow to London, Nightsleeper is the BBC’s newest Sunday night drama.
There’s a vogue for these real-time thriller shows at the moment. ITV’s Red Eye and Apple TV+’s Hijack have both been recommissioned. Television loves a ticking clock – remember all those years of 24 in the 00s? The ability to stream one episode after another just adds to the tension.
Nightsleeper stars Joe Cole (The Ipcress File) and Alexandra Roach (Men Up) – he’s on board while she works in counter-terrorism. They’re alongside an ensemble cast which includes James Cosmo, Sharon Small, David Threlfall and Ruth Madeley.
Ahead of its premiere, creator Nick Leather lifts the lid on his inspiration for Nightsleeper:
One morning, a looooong time ago, I sat in front of a blank screen and tried to scare myself – technically and literally. What if I could find a journey that took six hours and stayed with it in real-time? Could I use it to create a contemporary locked room mystery? Where would I least like to be trapped? Who would I least like to be trapped with? Is there a way to be trapped that could only happen today?
I haven’t ever been trapped on a sleeper train from Glasgow to London, but I have been trapped on a broken down evening train from Newton-le-Willows to Manchester. For the first two hours, no-one spoke, we just grumbled and muttered to ourselves. But in the third hour, it all changed. One person started arguing with another about the volume of the music emitted by their headphones, others were pulled in, actually talking to each other as result. This wasn’t a thriller, although we were out of phone coverage and the toilet was out of order too, so it was not without jeopardy, but it absolutely was a relationship drama. In small ways, strangers revealed themselves, and – shock of all shocks in the digital age – actually connected in real-life.
If this became my real-time show, if a train were to drive off without its driver and we then followed it through the very heart of Britain as our heroes tried to prevent disaster, it could still be a relationship drama, whilst also being a conspiracy thriller. It could be an action flick, a disaster movie and a love story, all rolled into one. But really, it could be its own thing – it could be Nightsleeper. If our train was being driven by person or persons unknown, able to change first its route, then its destination, switch the points, get off the mainline and go somewhere else entirely… then what if the story could do that too? It could have twists and turns and heart and humour and humanity. It could entertain people and make them care and talk and gasp and tweet and laugh and cry and never ever be bored and absolutely, above all else, have to watch the next episode.
I pitched it to Kate Harwood at Euston Films – a few sentences at the end of a phone call – and immediately she was in. With her support, we got three people in a room to see if the premise was possible: a former government cyber expert specialising in critical infrastructure; a railway designer and train obsessive; and an “ethical hacker”. I half-expected them to stop the idea in its tracks. Impossible. Could never happen. Think again. What they said was much worse though. Not only could it happen, but – after a couple of hours of pooling their collective expertise – they decided they could almost certainly carry out a so-called “hackjack” between them. I was shocked… and a bit scared… and kind of delighted… and definitely exhilarated – all the things I want the audience to feel now watching our show.
From the moment we took it to the BBC, they’ve been completely supportive and I’ve never enjoyed working on a show as much, never loved a team as much and never seen one work with more joy and commitment. It has been the journey of a lifetime.
Please join us for the ride…
Nightsleeper begins at 9pm on Sunday 15th September. It plays out across three weeks on Sunday and Monday nights at the same time.
Alternatively, the whole series drops on the iPlayer at 6am on September 15th too.