British thriller looks at double dealings in Hong Kong.

John Simm talks about his starring role in SoHo2’s new British thriller White Dragon in which he plays a professor whose life is thrown upside down by the death of his wife. James Rampton reports.

Few actors do dazed and confused better than John Simm – think of the look of perpetual bafflement when his modern-day detective Sam Tyler was confronted by the practices of the 1970s cop Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) in the British series Life On Mars.

So Simm is ideally cast as Jonah, the lead in White Dragon, a new British thriller. Jonah is a British professor whose life is turned upside down when his wife Megan (Dervla Kirwan) dies in a car crash in Hong Kong.

To identify her body, Jonah has to overcome his fear of flying and go to Hong Kong. But as he investigates Megan’s life, he uncovers a string of dark secrets. He is devastated as he begins to realise that his wife was leading a double life.

To add to his woes, the authorities who are purporting to help him turn out to be far from trustworthy. The deeper he delves, the more unsettled he feels.

Talking to the TV Guide between scenes in the Happy Seafood restaurant in Lau Fau Shan on the shore of the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong, Simm has the same magnetic energy he displays on screen. He is an engaging – and engaged – presence.