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HOLLIDAY GRAINGER AND CALLUM TURNER STAR IN A GRIPPING NEW SURVEILLANCE DRAMA…
One of the more terrifying things that’s been popping up in the news lately is the idea of ‘deepfakes’ – a video manipulated by technology to make a person appear to be saying or doing something that they didn’t really do. It opens up a huge legal and ethical quagmire: if we have video of someone seemingly committing an illegal act, can we take it at face value?
This impressively timely new drama puts that concept to the test. After soldier Shaun Emery’s barrister successfully argues that the helmet-cam footage used to convict him of unlawful killing in Afghanistan was flawed and inadmissible, he’s a free man again. But not for long, because a night out takes a scary turn when CCTV shows Shaun appearing to assault and kidnap someone – and after he sees the video with his own eyes, he’s horrified and swears that it’s not what really happened…
“Shaun wants the world to see him in a different way,” explains Callum Turner, who plays him. “He wants to bond with his daughter and with the mother of his child, and he wants his relationships with his friends to be different. He
doesn’t want to be the guy that would lash out – Shaun’s an aggressive person by nature, for whatever reason. His parents are dead, so he has abandonment issues, and the Army has ultimately deserted him in this moment, too. He can’t go on this way any more.”
In charge of Shaun’s case is newly promoted DI Rachel Carey, who's keen to prove herself on her first case as a Senior Investigating Officer – but as she delves into the enquiry, she comes to realise that you can’t always believe what you see.
“Initially she thinks it’s a career-making moment,” admits Holliday Grainger, who plays her. “She’s ambitious, but she has also got an incredibly strong moral standpoint, and genuinely wants to do good. I think she’s in the profession because she believes in justice and the legal system. That’s kind of the question of the series for her: what comes first – the search for truth and justice or her career goals?”
In order to play a soldier who spends most of the series on the run and fighting to clear his name, Callum had to make sure he was in good physical shape before filming – and he had help from the best…
“I trained with this guy Smudge – Steve Smith – who is hard as nails, but also the softest, sweetest guy in the world,” shares Callum. “We trained for four or five days a week, and he put me on a horrible diet and told me lots of stories, and it just seeped in through osmosis. I found myself being more aggressive than I’d ever been – partly
WHAT COMES FIRST: THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH OR HER CAREER?” HOLLIDAY