Drive! Drive! Drive!
Submarine mystery fans get that sinking feeling as real star of the show is... a Renault car hogging the screen for 12mins 17secs
THE star of BBC drama Vigil is award-winning, dependable and family friendly… but for many viewers, it’s not Suranne Jones.
They have instead been transfixed by the regular appearances of a Renault Megane hatchback during the series about a murder on a nuclear submarine, in which Ms Jones plays Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva.
In the first three episodes, totalling 175 minutes 26 seconds, the vehicle was on screen for 12 mins 17 secs – or seven per cent of the
running time. Driven by Detective Constable Kirsten Longacre, played by Game Of Thrones actress Rose Leslie, the £25,000 car has been seen in a highspeed chase and at a murder site.
It appears less prominently in other scenes, such as in the third episode when it could be spotted through a window behind DC Longacre as she talked to MI5 officers.
The frequency with which the car – and Renault’s logo – has been
seen even led one viewer to question whether there was a product placement deal in place.
The suspicions were fuelled by DCI Silva’s appearance in another Renault for 1min 40secs.
BBC rules prohibit the Corporation from charging for product placement on its programmes, but Vigil is in fact made by ITV-owned
World Productions and distributed by ITV Studios. The series, which sees DCI Silva winched on to a Trident submarine to investigate the murder of Craig Burke, played by Line Of Duty’s Martin Compston, has attracted more than ten million viewers.
Created by Jed Mercurio – whose previous credits include Line Of
Duty and The Bodyguard – the six-parter centres on the mysterious disappearance of a fishing trawler, and an inquiry that puts the police on a collision course with the Royal Navy and security services. It continues tonight on BBC1. The BBC declined to comment.