'Nightsleeper': First Look at BBC Real-Time Thriller

The longer streaming becomes the new norm, the more it seems that Fox’s 24 was ahead of its time. For those too young, too liberal, or too British to remember the post-9-11 American TV hit, the Kiefer Sutherland-starrer was your typical “white government hero stops brown terrorists from murdering innocent civilians” claptrap that was super popular during those years, but with a twist. Someone noticed the typical broadcast TV season ran 24 episodes, the same number of hours in a day; therefore, 24 was a “real-time” day in the character’s life in which he never stopped running to save people.

The conceit got tired after a few years, as did the suspension of disbelief that Sutherland could go 24 hours without stopping to eat or pee. However, as typical TV seasons are no longer 24 hours, but 6-8, and binge-watching makes the concept of watching a “real-time” show far more practical (at least far more than 24 ever was), the idea has gotten a refresh. Apple TV+ recently released Hijack, in which Idris Elba tried his hand at doing real-time terrorism management on an airplane. Now the BBC has Joe Cole (The Ipcress File) star in Nightsleeper, where he does terrorism management overnight on a train.

Cole plays Joe Roag, an off-duty cop onboard hoping for a quiet night when he boards the Heart of Britain sleeper train from Glasgow to London. He co-stars with Alexandra Roach (The Light in the Hall) as Abby Aysgarth, the Acting Technical Director at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, who (naturally) is about to finally take a well-earned holiday herself when she receives a call that the train is under attack, and Roag is the only one on board with training who she managed to reach.