Nightsleeper

After a handbag is stolen and recovered on a Glasgow train platform, for the passengers aboard a sleeper train to London, it seems as though the drama for the evening is over. However, when the train departs it appears the national operating systems have been hacked and the passengers are on a doomed one-way journey. A former police detective, Joe (Joe Cole) must investigate the source of the problem (that he partly created), trusting none of the other passengers in an Agatha Christie-esque adventure with National Cyber Security Centre acting technical director Abby (Alexandra Roach) offering guidance via satellite phone.

It is always difficult to create a series or a film within a closed environment and maintain a degree of world-building and excitement. Just look at Buried or Snakes on a Plane, movies with an exciting premise, yet restricted by their settings. Try and apply this to a series and the same will happen but in a more painfully elongated way. Much like Hijack starring Idris Elba, Nightsleeper chooses to follow events in real-time as the train hurtles towards an uncertain final destination, something the series benefits from by keeping the viewer in a sense of suspense and uncertainty about what will come next.

The show is desperate to be something it isn’t, or at least it tries to be an amalgamation of different genres, ultimately forming a relatively drama-less crisis. After a brilliant action-packed first episode that sees a mugging, chases, heightened tension and character introductions with a twist, what follows next is a lot of nothing. Too much time is spent screaming down phones, and it is hard to take a lot of the plot seriously because of its array of conveniently placed characters, including a journalist (Katie Leung), a lost child and even the Transport Secretary (Sharon Small). Even the countless phone calls between Joe and Abby come across as far too flirtatious given the severity of the situation, countered of course by a lot more shouting of random cyber jargon as the security team come up with yet another plan to stop the train.

The performances are all competent and well-executed, but in this instance, it is the writing that unfortunately lets the series down. However, salvation for Nightsleeper also rests in the writer’s hands, something they achieve with juicy cliffhangers that keep pulling you back in for one more episode. If you look past the endless shouting matches and weak minor plot moments and focus on the bigger picture of who might be responsible for the incident, you might find yourself having more fun trying to solve the crime than you first thought.

Guy Lambert

Nightsleeper is released on BBC iPlayer on 15^th September 2024.

Watch the trailer for Nightsleeper here: