Life on the line
An emergency centre worker gets a desperate call that changes his life in a Scottish thriller that’s full of twists
THE CONTROL ROOM Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, 9pm, BBC One
Aman has his life turned upside down by a single call in tense thriller The Control Room.
Iain De Caestecker stars as Gabe in the BBC One drama – a call handler for the Strathclyde Ambulance Service in Glasgow who answers a panicked call from a woman who seems to know him.
Writer Nick Leather, who also penned acclaimed TV dramas Mother’s Day and Murdered For Being Different, said: “One day, he takes a call and realises the life on the end of the line is actually his own.” Nick had the idea for the gripping three-part series when his own daughter fell ill and he had to call for help.
He explained: “We called 999 and in that desperate few minutes, I realised just how profoundly the person on the other end of the line can help you and affect you.
“Everything was OK in the end but the next time I sat down and tried to come up with a story, I wrote two things at the top – ‘Call room handler’ and ‘Caller’.
“I then tried to think of the way the relationship between those two people would be.”
Here, the cast reveal more on what viewers can expect from Nick’s latest gripping TV offering.
IAIN DE CAESTECKER PLAYS GABE
Former Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Iain knew he’d found TV gold when he read Nick’s script for The Control Room.
The 34-year-old said: “It was a page-turner from start to finish.I just had to know how it ended. Nick is a master of suspense and it leaves you on the edge of your seat. It’s nail-biting but it has a more sensitive side as well.”
The drama revolves around Iain’s character, Gabe – a man who gets a call that will change – and endanger – his life.
“There’s some childhood trauma he’s not quite ready to let go of, so when someone from his past comes back into his life quite suddenly and unexpectedly, he finds himself having to confront those demons.”
JOANNA VANDERHAM PLAYS SAM TOLMIE
As Gabe is drawn back into his past, one of the people he meets is Sam, whom Joanna describes as an “incredibly fiery and damaged woman who finds herself caught up in something that is much bigger than her”. Like her co-star Iain, Joanna, 30, was drawn to Nick’s fast-paced script and the fact that “it’s so characterdriven”. She adds, “I think people will love these characters, want to spend time with them and watch them come through the other side of these hugely transformative couple of days.”
SHARON ROONEY PLAYS DI ANNA BECK
The person trying to uncover a “very interesting” crime in The Control Room is DI Anna Beck, played by Finding Alice actress Sharon Rooney. And she promises that the series will keep viewers on the edge of their sofas. The 33-year-old said: “It’s a really exciting, contemporary thriller set in modern-day Glasgow that’s about ordinary people going through extraordinary things. “You’ll think you know where it’s going but I can guarantee you’re wrong because the twists and turns are really exciting.”