TROUBLE BREWING
A group of brewery workers are CAUGHT UP IN A MURDER in BBC1’S tense new drama
IF YOU’RE MISSING Line of Duty, you might want to try twisty crime drama The Pact. The new series is about five friends who find themselves caught up in a web of deceit and blackmail when a drunken prank goes terribly wrong.
Set in the Welsh valleys, the six-part series opens with brewery workers Nancy, Tish,
Cat and Louie encouraging their pal Anna to go for a promotion, only to see her cruelly knocked back by their sleazy boss, Jack (Aneurin Barnard).
The women are furious with their manager and when he gropes Tish at a staff party later that evening, they decide to get their own back – waiting until he passes out before leaving him in the local woods.
THE UNEXPECTED
However, when the friends return a few hours later, they’re shocked to find Jack is dead…
As the pals panic about what to do, Nancy (Julie Hesmondhalgh) convinces everyone to keep what happened a secret, but the situation is far more complicated for Anna, whose husband
Max (Jason Hughes) is a local detective.
‘Anna wants to tell the police, but the others convince her not to,’ says Breaking
Bad star Laura Fraser, who plays her. ‘She’s especially nervous as her husband ends up investigating the case.
I don’t want to give too much away, but
Anna has to lie and then lie again to cover up the lie, and pretty soon things start disintegrating with Max. What was once an honest and loving relationship becomes quite destructive.’
Jack’s father, Arwel (Eddie Marsan), who has returned from the south of France to celebrate the brewery’s centenary, is devastated to learn that his only son has died.
‘The brewery has been run by the family for 100 years,’ says Marsan. ‘Arwel left it to Jack, who was a very troubled young
man, partly to make up for something in their past and partly because he thought the responsibility would help him. Arwel’s a good man, but he has a troubled history and tries to run away from it. When he returns to attend this party, he finds himself having to face up to some dark secrets from his family’s past.’
CAUGHT OUT?
Events take a shocking twist when it becomes clear that someone knows the friends’ involvement in Jack’s death. And while Nancy is determined that they should stay united, others in the group wonder how long they’ll be able to keep their secret.
‘There’s so much solidarity between the women at the beginning – but it all starts to fall apart,’ says Fraser, who reveals there were some unexpected benefits to filming the series.
‘We filmed part of the show at a real brewery. They gave everybody free booze once we had finished the shoot, which was so sweet. I don’t drink, but everyone else certainly enjoyed it, especially the crew!’