Street racing drama revs up petrolheads
All-star cast gets in gear for thrilling dystopian drama
IF a cross between Mad Max and the Wacky Races with zombies thrown in for good measure appeals to you, then fasten your seatbelt.
Curfew, New Sky One drama which centres on the world of illicit street racing, started on Friday and viewers are absolutely loving it.
Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean heads up an all-star cast which also includes The OC’S Adam Brody, Billy Zane (Titanic) and Miranda Richardson (Blackadder).
The petrolhead competitors come together at dusk for the world’s deadliest race, pitting themselves against each other in “pimped-out weaponised vehicles”.
Told across a single night, the characters try to outwit one another set against a dystopian backdrop in which mankind has been all but obliterated by a mystery virus.
A totalitarian government has put a curfew in place to help protect the population from said virus – and anyone out after midnight faces being put into quarantine.
Those who manage to avoid it get to enter the illegal street race which promises sanctuary to the winner.
The drama is full of larger-than-life characters with Zane playing Joker Jones who he describes as a “member of a viral video performance art troupe on a healing hell-ride”.
Richardson plays Lou, a “kind, tough, brave, practical and romantic woman”.
She compared the action to a Western “except the horses are replaced by cars”.
Elsewhere in the ensemble cast are Adrian Lester (Hustle, Trauma), Phoebe Fox (Black Mirror) and Robert Glenister (Cold Feet, Spooks). The first episode cuts back and forth between present day and five years previously when one of the characters suffered a severe accident, ending up in a wheelchair.
We see them trying to learn to walk again and then the action fast forwards to the starting line where the once-in-a-lifetime race is about to begin.
Episode two gives more of the back story before the race itself gets under way – with more flashbacks thrown in along the route to flesh out the characters.
Bold and ambitious it certainly is – and just a little bit addictive to boot.
Curfew is on Sky One on Fridays at 9pm. The entire series is available to watch on streaming service NOW TV.