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New BBC1 thriller The Control Room sees an emergency call handler pulled into a mystery by the voice on the other end of the line. DANIELLE finds out more from its cast and creator
DE WOLFE
DEALING with life or death scenarios is all in a day’s work for Britain’s emergency service call handlers. The role requires a cool head and an even cooler phone manner.
It’s something Bafta award-winning screenwriter Nick Leather knows all too well.
His latest project – new three-part BBC thriller The Control Room – was dreamed up after his own desperate 999 call for help.
“I went to wake my youngest daughter up in the morning – she was only very little, and we couldn’t wake her,” he remembers. “Her eyes were half open, and we couldn’t wake her. It was that horrible thing where you suddenly start panicking.”
Noting that his daughter turned out to be “absolutely fine”, Nick says that when searching for new writing material, he regularly found himself reflecting on that fearful day and that desperate phone call.
“Just for a few minutes, when you don’t know things are gonna be alright and you’re so desperate, it’s such an intense conversation with someone you don’t know – you never spoke to before, you’re never going to speak to again, you don’t
know what they look like and they don’t know what you look like,” he says.
“I just thought: what if an emergency call room handler was pulled into the emergency? What if, in that professional situation, suddenly it was a personal situation?”
Stunned by the profoundly intense relationship he himself built with the
anonymous voice at the other end of the phone, Nick’s own experience underpins his latest on-screen drama.
Describing call handlers as “everyday heroes”, recent years have seen Nick spend time with police units on drug raids and liaising with social services as part of his research for his heart-stopping storylines.
“I do have a bulletproof vest in the shed, obviously, because you need to keep these things handy,” smiles the writer.
“I was embedded in Greater Manchester Police and went on high speed car chases and drug raids and all these exciting things... I ended up in a situation where the detective was shouting at me: ‘Put your bulletproof vest on’. I was like, ‘Oh, no. I thought that was just there for show’.”
Given his experiences, it stands to reason, then, that Nick’s latest project – set specifically within an ambulance control room – is not short on action.
THE CAST
Roadkill star Ian de Caestecker plays Gabe, an emergency call handler for the Strathclyde Ambulance Service in Scotland’s second city.
It’s a far cry from some of Ian’s previous roles, which have seen him battle aliens in Agents of SHIELD, heal sick animals in Young James Herriot, tackle the supernatural in The Fades and be the first actor to play Adam Barlow in Coronation Street.
“The Control Room is one of the most exciting scripts I’ve ever read, I was on the edge of my seat the
Just for a few minutes, when you don’t know things are gonna be alright and you’re so desperate, it’s such an intense conversation with someone you don’t know Nick Leather, writer of The Control Room on making a 999 call
whole time so I’m thrilled to now be bringing it to life,” says the 34-year-old Scot.
The series sees Gabe answer an incoming call for help – only to discover the distant voice at the other end of the phone – played by Joanna Vanderham, star of shows like The Runaway, Crime and Warrior – appears to know him.
“Every few minutes, [Gabe] deals with matters of life and death. And then one day, he takes one call and realises that the life on the line is actually his own,” explains Nick. Also starring Sharon Rooney (My Mad Fat Diary, Finding Alice) as a police detective named Breck, the show explores what happens when Gabe, a man accustomed to helping others, finds himself on the wrong side of the law. “From spending time in the police, I thought a lot of the police I see on telly aren’t quite right,” Nick reflects. “I needed to ground [Rooney’s] character a lot and make her much more normal... “She shouldn’t be like a TV detective... The detectives I met, one of them was a travel agent until they became a detective. It’s [was about] grounding it and keeping all the characters as real as possible.”
ROOTED IN REALITY
Describing call handlers as “ordinary people” dragged into “crazy” situations, Ian says he felt a “degree of responsibility” when it came to portraying the career accurately on-screen.
“I went and spent time in reallife control rooms – you could say they’re kind of the invisible side of the emergency service,” says the Scottish actor.
“They’re faceless, really, but they do such an amazing job, and I guess, potentially, they don’t get the credit they deserve. So, that was one thing we were very conscious of, just making sure that we did that respectfully.”
A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY
With Gabe “stuck in the past” according to Ian, and Joanne noting that her character, Sam, is “lying to herself”, the actress says that in spite of the chaos, the pair’s journey is a tale of positive selfgrowth and rediscovery.
“I think it focuses on the fact they’ve been living these lives they feel are on a set path. And it isn’t until they meet as adults, that they realise they’ve got choices and they can make changes,” says Joanne, 30.
Describing how Sam “coming in like a whirlwind” shakes up Gabe’s view of the world, the pair’s ensuing adventure – described by Joanne as “absolute chaos” – leads to the duo swapping the mundane for the mysterious.
“Sometimes, when you’re watching a thriller, I think your hero loves being in a thriller a bit too much,” smiles Nick.
“And so, I thought my hero should be someone who doesn’t want to be in a thriller. It’s his worst nightmare.
“He wants to be in a rom-com. Gabe has stumbled into the wrong show... he doesn’t want to have taken that call.”
The Control Room is on BBC1 tomorrow at 9pm