Nightsleeper

Nightsleeper is a six-part British television series made for BBC One, starring Joe Cole and Alexandra Roach and written by Nick Leather for Euston Films. It was released in September 2024.

Nightsleeper
Genre	Crime thriller
Created by	Nick Leather
Written by	Laura Grace Nick Leather
Directed by	John Hayes Jamie Magnus Stone
Starring	Alexandra Roach Joe Cole Remy Beasley Katie Leung Leah MacRae Ruth Madeley Pamela Nomvete Sharon Rooney Micah Balfour Alex Ferns Sharon Small James Cosmo David Threlfall Jonjo O'Neill
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Executive producers	Kate Harewood Gaynor Holmes Nick Leather Noemi Spanis Jamie Magnus Stone
Producer	Jonathan Curling
Cinematography	Arthur Mulhern
Production company	Euston Films
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	15 September (2024-09-15) – 30 September 2024 (2024-09-30)

Synopsis

A real time drama, the series is set on the fictional Heart of Britain sleeper train travelling to London from Glasgow. Two people who have not met before must work together to try to save the lives of the passengers.

Cast

Passengers & Train Crew

• Joe Cole as Joseph Roag, a former Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector on the run after being accused of theft
• Ruth Madeley as Chrissy Doolan, a disabled human rights solicitor
• James Cosmo as Fraser Warren, an elderly retired train driver for Heart of Britain and Sophie's father-in-law
• Katie Leung as Rachel Li, a lifestyle trends reporter
• Sharon Small as Liz Draycott MP, the Secretary of State for Transport
• Alex Ferns as Arran Moy, a belligerent accountant in first class
• Daniel Cahill as Danny Geoghan, an oil rig worker with a satellite phone
• Leah MacRae as Sophie Warren, Fraser's daughter-in-law
• Scott Reid as William McCloud, one of the train conductors
• Sharon Rooney as Yasmin Brown, one of the train customer service crew
• Adam Mitchell as Max "Mouse" Ellis, a young boy who befriends Joe
• Lois Chimimba as Erin Connolly, a hotel worker and student

British Government

• Alexandra Roach as Abby Aysgarth, the acting Technical Director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
• David Threlfall as Paul 'Pev' Peveril, former Technical Director of the NCSC fired for whistleblowing
• Pamela Nomvete as Nicola Miller, the Director of GCHQ
• Parth Thakerar as Saj Sidhu, a technical expert at the NCSC
• Jasmine Naziha Jones as Zed Hylton, a technical expert at the NCSC
• Jonjo O'Neill as Mark Hudson, a senior Security Service field officer

Others

• Remy Beasley as Meg Hooton, Abby's friend

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.K. viewers (millions)
1	"Episode 1"	Jamie Magnus Stone	Nick Leather	15 September 2024 (2024-09-15)	5.88
2	"Episode 2"	Jamie Magnus Stone	Nick Leather	16 September 2024 (2024-09-16)	4.66
3	"Episode 3"	Jamie Magnus Stone	Nick Leather	22 September 2024 (2024-09-22)	5.21
4	"Episode 4"	John Hayes	Laura Grace	23 September 2024 (2024-09-23)	4.84
5	"Episode 5"	John Hayes	Laura Grace	29 September 2024 (2024-09-29)	5.32
6	"Episode 6"	John Hayes	Nick Leather	30 September 2024 (2024-09-30)	5.30

Production

It was revealed in December 2022 that the BBC had commissioned the series written by Nick Leather who is also executive producer alongside Gaynor Holmes for Euston Films. Executive producers also include Kate Harewood and Neomi Spanos. Jonathan Curling is producing. The series is directed by Jamie Magnus Stone and John Hayes.

Casting

In April 2023 it was revealed that Joe Cole and Alexandra Roach would lead the cast. That same month other cast members were revealed including David Threlfall, Ruth Madeley, Alex Ferns, Sharon Small, James Cosmo, Lois Chimimba, Gabriel Howell, Katie Leung, Leah MacRae, Adam Mitchell, Sharon Rooney, Pamela Nomvete, Scott Reid, Daniel Cahill, and Parth Thakerar.

Filming

Filming took place in Glasgow in April 2023. The opening scene was filmed in Glasgow's Central Station. Filming was also done in and outside Victoria Station, London. The interior scenes of the National Cyber Security Centre were filmed at the City of Glasgow College's Riverside Campus

Broadcast

The series premiered on BBC One on 15 September 2024 and had its BBC iPlayer streaming release on the same day.

Reception

The Guardian's Lucy Mangan gave the "fantastically dreadful" series two stars out of five, saying that the plot became "increasingly ridiculous and even within the elastic definition we apply to these capers, absurd" and the dialogue "increasingly abysmal", and calling Joe Cole's performance "expressionless to the point of distraction".

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Keith Watson gave the series three stars out of five, saying that "[f]or all its adrenalin-rush moments [...] the basic premise makes about as much sense as the rail ticket pricing system", that the cliffhanger moments were "the TV equivalent of rubber-necking: you know you should look away but you really can't", and that the series was best enjoyed by suspending disbelief. In Watson's estimation, Joe Cole "does a kind of low-rent Speed-era Keanu Reeves turn" but nevertheless made "a fine action hero", while the passengers aboard the hacked train were "little more than clichés with issues, their backstories inserted to fill in the bits between chases/near misses/staring at the rail-route map."

In Radio Times, David Craig gave the series two stars out of five, saying it was "laden with cliché in terms of dialogue and plot structure [...] taking several staples out of the bland conspiracy thriller playbook" and "compromised by the sheer volume of jokes, which go beyond comic relief to almost rendering this show an outright comedy-drama." Craig devoted several paragraphs of his review to criticising what he saw as the use of the passengers to "shoe-horn" a social unity narrative "in a clunky, cringe-inducing manner". Craig would finish his review by saying the series felt "like a show that couldn't decide what it wanted to be", with "shades of a self-aware train-set action-comedy, dashes of a nervy cyber thriller, and attempts at hard-hitting social commentary on political polarisation and marginalisation. Blended together, it makes a strange concoction".

Reviewing the series for the Herald, Alison Rowat gave the series two stars out of five, saying that it was "six hours of bum-numbing nonsense that makes the Father Ted remake of Speed [...] look like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" and "[e]very now and then a too silly by-half twist comes along, or a slab of terrible dialogue, and the action screeches to a halt."

Writing in The Times, Carol Midgley gave the series three stars out of five but found it "very schlocky" and said that "[t]he implausibilities started from the opening frame."

In a more positive review, Gerard Gilbert of the i gave the series four stars out of five (albeit appearing to have reviewed the first episode only), calling it "a high-speed blast from start to finish" and saying that the train-borne setting was original and "fruitfully explored" and that the action onscreen "moved at a suitably unrelenting pace but was laced with dry humour."

Digital Spy's Janet Leigh, whilst not carrying out a proper review as such, said that the plot twist in the final episode was representative of the series' issues with plot twists as a whole, "each one losing more and more intrigue as the story progressed. The show overplayed the whodunnit aspect so much that [...] the identity of the real culprit landed without excitement." Likewise, the impending train crash was deprived of narrative weight due to the "many, MANY hair-raising moments that came before" and due to it being "extremely obvious" that the characters were not "about to meet their end in grisly fashion." Leigh concluded that the series "did manage to maintain a sense of urgency and pace in spite of the flaws but perhaps was a little too eager to prove itself as a gripping mystery thriller."

External links

• Nightsleeper at IMDb
• Nightsleeper at BBC Online