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THE CRAZIEST CAR RACE EVER
The only escape from a Britain gripped by a horrific virus in thriller Curfew is a life-or-death car race – and it’s one hell of a ride
Shoot- outs, supercharged cars, flesh-eating zombies – it doesn’t sound like a typical British drama. That’s why Curfew is something rather special. The ambitious new series is made by the team behind Peaky Blinders and, like that awardwinning show about 1920s Birmingham gangsters, has a cool swagger to it. But that’s where the similarities end.
Curfew, on Sky One, is set in a dystopian near-future where a dreadful virus turns humans into terrifying carnivorous creatures which emerge at night to sink their teeth into people. To counteract this horrific threat the government has decreed that citizens must stay indoors from sundown to sunrise.
Life is difficult and claustrophobic but escape is promised to a hardy few. An American billionaire called Max Larssen has an island in the South Pacific with no creatures, no curfew and enough resources to last a lifetime. Each year he offers one team of daring pioneers the chance to live on his island as first prize for winning the world’s craziest and most dangerous car race.
This year’s 24-hour rally – a kind of deadly Wacky Races – is from London to the Scottish Highlands, and not every team will make it to the end. But the promise of a new life far from virusplagued Britain is enough enticement.
‘This show is something very different – dangerous, exciting and ominous,’ says Sean Bean, who stars as one of the racers, a criminal mastermind known as The General who is determined to get to the island for a fresh start with his pregnant girlfriend Faith. ‘It’s a very dark world but there are people who are eccentric and free thinkers and I think many of them are involved in this race.’
Another competitor is paramedic Kaye Newman ( Phoebe Fox). When her former patient and lover Michael walks back into her life, with his new girlfriend who happens to be her sister, she finds herself becoming the third member of their team, racing in her ambulance. Michael has escaped from a research facility and could hold the secret to stopping the virus.
‘Kaye is the straight woman of the piece,’ says Phoebe, best known for costume dramas including The Hollow Crown and Life In Squares. ‘She starts off an unwilling participant but then realises the race is a way of freeing herself from the shackles of her life. My favourite line is, “I don’t want your help, I want your bazooka!”’
The race definitely attracts oddities. Among them are Team Awesome, led by Joker Jones (Titanic star Billy Zane). Former psychiatrists rebelling against the curfew, they’ve been carrying out death-defying acts on camera, teasing the authorities to come and get them.
‘This is the best character I’ve played,’ says Billy. ‘If you take John Wayne, Bill Murray and Hunter S Thompson and mix them up, you’ll have Joker Jones and his crew. They comically avoid mishaps through good deeds and being a little bit off their faces.’
The other two cars we follow are doing it for family reasons. Miranda Richardson is Lou Collins, whose girlfriend Sue is already on the island. She is travelling with their adopted daughter and wants to reunite the family.
For the Donahues, things are more urgent. Son Roman has been caught doing something illegal and faces imprisonment. His father Simon (Adrian Lester) is trying to hold the family together – but before they’ve even started racing one of them loses their life. Nicole Lampert Curfew, Friday, 9pm, Sky One.