Fasten your seatbelts for this bonkers super Sunday drama
The doctor is allowed a double G&T – which he promptly downs without spilling a drop
In my humble opinion, Sunday night at 9pm is a very special time in the televisual week. This is the golden hour of telly time, when the very best shows (and often the bestlooking actors) battle it out for our attention.
Line of Duty, Vigil, Trigger Point, Happy Valley, Hawaii 5-0 (okay, maybe that last one is just me) … all the A-list, top drawer programmes that make the weekend go out with a bang.
So ITV’s Red Eye falls into the same bracket of exciting and entertaining drama. And as long as you’re willing to suspend a certain amount of disbelief, it does deliver.
As the title would suggest, it’s set on board an aircraft – always a bonus.
Planes seem to bring out the best and worst in people, both in real life and on screen.
We’ve all seen footage on Facebook of drunken Duncan from Dewsbury being unceremoniously hauled off his Ryanair flight to Malaga after trying to light a fag outside the door to the cockpit.
Things that are set on aeroplanes are rarely dull. See Snakes on a Plane, Hijack, the second Die Hard, the really scary bit in Final Destination that you just can’t unsee – there’s something about being 35,000 feet up inside a metal tube that ramps up the tension a few extra notches.
In Red Eye, it all goes off before they’re even cleared for take-off. In fact, the fictitious North China Air flight from Beijing has only just opened the doors on the inbound flight when a group of doctors travelling in first class learn they’ll have to go straight back to China as witnesses in a manslaughter investigation.
Picture the scene. You’ve just flown 10 or so hours – albeit with a good 60 inches of legroom – you’ve eaten all the Pringles, read the inflight mag cover to cover and watched the Aquaman movie as well as several episodes of Modern Family. Then you find you have to go all the way back because some woman has been found dead in a car being driven by one of the guys at the conference you’ve just left.
Understandably, there are some long faces and one of the group flounces off – only to be kidnapped with a bag on his head when he gets to his car. Who knew airport parking companies were so ruthless?
Anyhow, at the centre of the kerfuffle is Dr Matthew Nolan (Richard Armitage), an expat arriving at Heathrow from China. He hasn’t even made it to the baggage carousel before he’s arrested over a car crash in which it is claimed a woman was killed.
He’s facing deportation but smells a rat – yes, he was stabbed by a bouncer as he left a nightclub; yes, he had to leg it to his car and drive off; and yes, he does prang it. But he’s sure he would have noticed a woman’s body on the back seat.
He makes a bid for freedom as he’s being led to the gate by immigration officers and his rather jaded Met detective babysitter Det Con Hana Li (Jing Lusi).
But rather than leg it out of the airport he chooses a busy departure hall to stand on a chair and encourages everyone to film him as he tells them he’s innocent and is being framed.
He’s re-arrested but not before the clip is well and truly out there on social media – where it’s seen by Hana’s sister, who just so happens to be a journalist, albeit a junior one.
And here’s where things get a bit silly. After being bundled back into first class without so much as a quick look in duty free, the doctor is allowed a beverage and plumps for a double G&T – which he promptly downs without spilling a drop despite the fact he’s in handcuffs.
As if! He’d almost certainly struggle with those cuffs on. There’s a sobering moment ahead though when, after declining his vegan in-flight meal, the poor soul who’s been served it instead ends up dying.
Meanwhile, the situation is being monitored by MI5 director general (Lesley Sharp), who is instructed not to sour British relations with China by intervening to help a UK citizen.
The dialogue is fairly predictable, there’s some fairly cringeworthy stereotypes in there and some really unsubtle clues about what might happen as the action unfolds. Pilot kissing a photo of his family before take-off? He has to be a goner, surely – and don’t get me started on the lapdog that’s somehow rocked up in business class.
However, if you can get past all this, it’s really quite entertaining. Quite whether it’s Sunday Golden Hour entertaining remains to be seen – ask me again after the next five episodes. Or after a few hastily downed gin and tonics.