I recently watched a BBC series called NightSleeper, a drama about a train getting hackjacked—that is, hijacked by hackers. In this post I will give you my review of it.
The premise
Here’s the basic premise without giving you any spoilers. The train in question is the Heart of Britain sleeper train, which travels overnight from Glasgow to London. A diverse group of characters with different backgrounds and histories are on the train.
After leaving Glasgow station, train staff discover a device being used to control the train. Subsequently, the train speeds off on its own, leaving some of the passengers trapped on board.
A policeman named Joe happens to be on board the train and plays a leading role in trying to understand what’s happening.
Joe manages to contact the UK cybersecurity centre, and Abby, the centre’s director, helps him as he tries to find a way to stop the train. All the while, there is a suspicion that somebody on the train may be involved, but we don’t know who. With each episode, the series keeps us on our toes so that we never know who to point the finger at. It keeps you guessing, which I like in a drama.
My thoughts on it
I liked that one of the characters was a wheelchair user, played by Ruth Madeley. There aren’t enough disabled characters on TV, so it’s good to see.
Madeley plays a lawyer named Chrissy, and her character shows some of a wheelchair user’s experience of using a train, like not being able to get off the train because there was no ramp available.
It’s not uncommon for wheelchair users to be stuck on trains because there was no assistance waiting for them to help them off.
It was refreshing to see a disabled character not only played by a disabled actor but also one of the main characters—not just a bit part.
I thought each character was compelling and believable and had depth to them. They all had back stories and problems so it was easy to see them as real people.
Nightsleeper is one of those series that makes you want to binge-watch all the episodes as quickly as possible. But I managed to limit myself to 2 episodes a day just to prolong the pleasure. There are six episodes, so you could watch them all in one day if you wish.
Some bits of it were implausible, like an old man being able to jump the gap between carriages, but I could overlook that. It was still entertaining.
Conclusion
If you like dramas, I recommend watching Nightsleeper, which is available on BBC iPlayer. It’s entertaining and bingeable even though some parts may be a bit far-fetched. I thought the storyline and script were compelling even though it was given negative reviews in the media. It’s worth watching though, in my opinion.
