Horror in the Highlands: Double murder at heart of a new British crime drama.

One Of Us, a new British crime thriller starting this week, looks at the aftermath of a horrific double murder. James Rampton reports.

If you are watching the taut new British thriller, One Of Us, while sitting on a seat, then you will be definitely on the edge of it by the end of the first episode.

It is this palpable sense of tension that drew its star Juliet Stevenson to the story, which is written by Harry and Jack Williams, who were also responsible for the hit drama The Missing.

One Of Us explores the dramatic impact when two neighbouring families in the remote Scottish Highlands are plunged into crisis. Childhood sweethearts and newlyweds Adam Elliot and Grace Douglas are brutally murdered on their return from honeymoon.

Their grief-stricken families are further traumatised when the badly injured killer turns up on their doorstep. This appearance unearths long-buried secrets. What should the bereaved relatives do with the murderer of their loved ones?

Juliet, who plays Adam’s devastated mother Louise, was immediately gripped by the script for One Of Us.

“I’m not great at reading scripts,” Juliet admits. “It can take me a couple of days. But I was away on holiday and I sat and read all four scripts all the way to the end without pausing. It just caught me.

“Jack and Harry are brilliant on structure and narrative. They know how to keep the ball up in the air and bring through all these complicated threads.

“They are never too obscure, but you can’t ever second-guess what’s going to happen or who did what. They leave you on a cliffhanger at the end of every episode.”

Another reason why One Of Us is so riveting is because it deals in themes that will strike a chord with almost everyone. For instance, it uncovers the extent to which we all live with secrets and lies.

Juliet, who has also headlined in

Truly, Madly, Deeply and Bend It Like Beckham, reflects that One Of Us is about, “Events that take place when somebody’s secret past won’t remain secret any more. Past actions are pushed to the surface by events that are out of control of the participants.

“Life does have a way of doing that, doesn’t it? We think we are in control and can share things when it suits us, but we are much less in control than we believe we are.”

One Of Us also invites viewers to examine their own sense of morality.

Jack muses that, “The question of ‘What would you do?’ is in every aspect of the story, from the murders to the secrets that come out about these families.

“There are about five or six stories that will hopefully make people question what they would have done differently, and challenge the perception of what right and wrong is.”

Harry chips in that One Of

Us is, “Putting the audience in the heads of these characters, trying to get them to empathise with them and ask if they’d do the same. If you can get people to do that, then you’ve done your job.”

The actors were obliged to go to some dark places during the making of this drama. Juliet, in particular, was challenged by playing a grieving mother.

“I haven’t been in any of the situations Louise finds herself in, thank goodness,” says Juliet.

“But as with every actor, you search your emotional cupboard and find things to push you to the edge and do a lot of imagining, immersing yourself in what it would be like to be kicked into this terrible grief and have to cope with a disintegrating world around you. I had to imagine things I don’t really want to imagine in my own life.”

Juliet proceeds to explain the research she undertook for the role.

“One of the challenges of this job was to have to imagine what it’s like to have a child murdered. I have kids and it’s something I don’t want to think about. I googled ‘parents of murdered children’ and up came forums where parents have had that experience and I read endless heart-breaking accounts.

“This job involved more darkness than I’ve ever encountered before. It’s not just grief or death. The loss of a child is unimaginable and you can’t recover from that. But the loss of a child by murder is another territory altogether.”

Juliet hopes that audiences will be moved by the sheer emotion of watching One Of Us.

“I think the viewer will be drawn in deeply and quickly into a story which takes them out of their comfort zone. I think people like to come on an extreme journey of human experience.

“We are still doing Greek stories of murder, of love, and of revenge. Those are the stories that last throughout the ages.”

“This job involved more darkness than I’ve ever encountered before. It’s not just grief or death. The loss of a child is unimaginable.” – Juliet Stevenson