A high-stakes drama set on a train in the UK invites no shortage of jokes regarding the dire state of our national rail network. But seeing as everyone else is already doing that, I am going to try not to succumb to such low-hanging fruit – let's see how long that lasts.
Nightsleeper kicks off as passengers on an overnight journey from Glasgow to London are shocked to discover that their train is departing on time (oh dear, not long at all). A less welcome surprise, however, is that it has been hacked by an unknown figure, who is controlling it from afar and holding those inside to ransom.
In the tradition of Die Hard, an off-duty cop named Joe Roag (Joe Cole) unwittingly lands at the centre of this plot and leads the passengers in their attempt to escape. He takes guidance from National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) operative Abby Aysgarth (Alexandra Roach), who is doing everything she can to beat the sinister culprit at their own game.
Along for the ride is a group of passengers who, in a cruel twist of fate, seem as if they are designed to irritate one another: an unpopular government minister, an inquisitive journalist (yuck), an anti-woke agitator, a feisty young liberal, a woman with a troubled past, her frosty father-in-law, and so on.
It doesn't take long for them to start butting heads, worsening an already intensely stressful situation, but perhaps they can find some common ground as things escalate further? Sigh, OK.
It's not that I don't agree that there is more that unites us than separates us, and that co-operation, empathy and understanding are valuable to nurture in society. It's just that I don't think shoe-horning these life lessons into an action thriller in a clunky, cringe-inducing manner is particularly useful towards achieving that goal.
Let's put it this way: I don't believe that anyone with genuinely bigoted views is going to be converted into a beacon of tolerance after six hours of Nightsleeper. To be fair, that would be a lot to ask from any television drama, but particularly one that often feels like afterschool edutainment in its surface-level commentary.
In more than one case, a scene boils down to a character essentially explaining to the camera what social issue is affecting them in that moment, which feels unnatural and immediately takes you out of the show. Representation is hugely important, but careful consideration should be given over how to weave it into a story organically.
I fear it's more likely that Nightsleeper will give toxic online trolls ammunition for their campaigns of negativity and abuse, rather than convince any of them to log off. As a socially liberal person who actually does want to see a wider spectrum of life experience reflected on screen, it's incredibly frustrating to see it done in such a ham-fisted way on primetime television.
I'm tempted to say you can still enjoy this as a dumb train thriller, but honestly, why bother? While the show looks sleek enough, even daring to show the outside of the hurtling train at several points, the action sequences are hardly the most exhilarating you can find on the big or small screen.
And the plot tying them all together? That's a lot of nonsense, really. The creator of Nightsleeper has assured us that the scenario it depicts is entirely possible – and I believe that – but again, it's the execution that stops it from feeling in the least bit frightening.
Nightsleeper is laden with cliché in terms of dialogue and plot structure. I'm sure many of you can hazard a guess as to how this show will play out beat-by-beat, with Nightsleeper taking several staples out of the bland conspiracy thriller playbook, previously taken out of the library by ITV's Red Eye.
Furthermore, if I have to hear another nerdy character blurt out a bunch of technobabble, followed by their luddite associate saying something like, 'In English, please?', then I'm going to scream.
The plot is also compromised by the sheer volume of jokes, which go beyond comic relief to almost rendering this show an outright comedy-drama. How are we supposed to take the threat of the nightmare train seriously when even the people on board can't stop throwing out zingers? This could be forgiven if they were any good, but often it's just annoying.
For what it's worth, the Nightsleeper cast does their best with this less-than-stellar material. Cole and Roach are likeable enough leads, with their screen chemistry being particularly impressive given that they only communicate over the phone. Of the wider ensemble, there's no weak link to speak of, but nor is there anyone that will knock your socks off.
In the end, Nightsleeper feels like a show that couldn't decide what it wanted to be. There are shades of a self-aware train-set action-comedy, dashes of a nervy cyber thriller, and attempts at hard-hitting social commentary on political polarisation and marginalisation. Blended together, it makes a strange concoction; you may struggle to finish the bottle.
Meet The Cast Of Nightsleeper
The BBC thriller Nightsleeper boasts an intriguing premise. Penned by BAFTA award-winning writer Nick Leather, the six-part series follows Joe Roag, an off-duty police officer who finds himself at the centre of a national disaster.
After boarding a train travelling from Glasgow to London, Joe quickly discovers that it's been hijacked by hackers. Teaming up with Abby Aysgarth (Roach) – the acting technical director at the National Cyber Security Centre – Joe and Abby must work together to stop the train, and identify the self-styled 'Driver' behind the attack.
Leading the cast is Peaky Blinders favourite, Joe Cole. Among his most recent projects, the actor has appeared in The Ipcress File (2022) and A Small Light (2023). Speaking about his role as unlucky cop Joe Roag, the rising star said it was “a lot of fun” shooting Nightsleeper.
Reflecting on his character's arc, he told the BBC: “Joe is a great leader of teams and a galvaniser of people although, at the beginning of this, he is a lone wolf. Gradually, he learns to cooperate and work with everybody else – he realises that if not everybody is on board, pardon the pun, then he's not going to be able to stop the train.”
Alexandra Roach steps into the role of Abby Aysgarth, the acting technical director at the National Cyber Security Centre. “When we first meet Abby, she's about to switch her phone off, forget about everything at work and go on holiday with her best friend. It's the first holiday she's taken in years,” the Welsh actress explained.
“Just as she's at the airport about to check in for the flight, she gets a phone call to say: Hang on, there's something dodgy going on, you might want to take a look. Abby has a spidey sense, she's always one step ahead of everybody. She feels something's not right and she needs to be across it.”
Alexandra, 37, has continued to make her mark on television and is best known for her roles in Sanditon (2019), Viewpoint (2021) and Bodies (2023).
Ruth Madeley plays Chrissy Doolan – a lawyer and fellow passenger on the train. You may recognise her from series 15 of Doctor Who, in which she portrayed Shirley Ann Bingham, a role that she'll reprise in The War Between The Land and the Sea in 2025.
Game of Thrones actor James Cosmo appears as former railway worker and passenger, Fraser Warren. Boasting an extensive list of credits, James has featured in Sons of Anarchy (2010), Shetland (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2022) and Six Four (2023).
Katie Leung is internationally recognised as Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films. Following the conclusion of the franchise, the Scottish star has bagged main roles in Annika (2021), Arcane (2021-24) and The Peripheral (2022). This time around she's playing Rachel Zhu, a passenger frustrated by delays to her train journey.
The Nightsleeper Ending Explained: Who Was The Driver?
We finally find out who's behind the hackjacking... (SPOILERS AHEAD)
This Nightsleeper ending explained contains spoilers for episode 6… As we reach the finale of this breakneck drama, The Heart of Britain is hurtling towards London with a handful of passengers aboard.
Luckily Joe Roag (Joe Cole) managed to split the train in half, but while most of the passengers are safely on the second half, he’s still on the front, along with Fraser Warren (James Cosmo), his daughter-in-law Sophie (Leah MacRae), Yas Brown (Sharon Rooney), Billy (Scott Reid) and young Mouse (Adam Mitchel).
Meanwhile it’s been revealed the code used by the terrorists to stage the attack was actually written by Acting Technical Director of NCST, Abby Aysgarth (Alexandra Roach) for an earlier mission, Operation Mashhad.
The code was designed to take charge of a train containing nuclear material in Iran, yet now the BBG have used it to take over the British Rail Network and send The Heart of Britain towards a deadly collision.
Meanwhile Director General, Nicola Miller (Pamela Nomvete) has been in classified discussions with the Minister for Transport, Liz Draycott (Sharon Small) about the sale of UK Rail to French company, Voyeur Rapide. Miller claims Draycott was very keen for the sale, yet the minister denies this.
On the train, Draycott is telling her side of the story to investigative journalist Rachel Li (Katie Leung), who was herself contacted by the BBG and advised to book herself a ticket on The Heart of Britain on the night it was hijacked.
Elsewhere Arran (Alex Fern) is seriously injured after being accidentally shot by Joe Roag (Joe Cole) and Fraser (James Cosmo) has suffered a suspected heart attack. As for Joe, he’s determined to clear his name and get back to London to see his son.
But who is the driver? Is the Minister For Transport telling the truth about the sale of UK Rail? ...and will Joe be able to prove his innocence?
As the second half of the train slowly comes to a halt, the police secure the carriages, yet find Rachel Li has fled into the woods. Saj (Parth Thakerer), while Miller informs Abby the government has decided to step in and pay the ransom. Yet it doesn't work as the terrorists simply ask for more money.
Meanwhile, the police have apprehended Rachel Li and found she had a secret satellite phone in her bag, while Liz Draycott’s assistant has leaked the news of the “hackjack” to the press.
With readymade lawyer Chrissy Doolan (Ruth Madeley) by her side, Rachel explains that she had nothing to do with the hijacking, but fled because she believed she was being framed. However, with the communication jammers left behind on the second half of the train, everyone’s phones are now working.
Abby wants to plug a phone into the device, so she can prevent The Heart of Britain from receiving the commands from the hijackers. She does that by sending as much info as possible to make the system restart and create a window in which she can patch the vulnerability and lock out the terrorists. If she succeeds, the passengers would be able to drive the train themselves, using a laptop.
However, at NCSC, they’ve discovered that someone on the front of the train is receiving messages indicating they are involved. So the passenger involved in the conspiracy is still on the train!
When Joe gets to the device, he realises crew member Yas Brown (Sharon Rooney) has been a part of the plot all along! “This wasn’t supposed to happen!” she says as she confesses to setting up the device, installing the communication jammers and planting evidence in Rachel’s bag, in a bid to frame her.
The BBG knew Yas was being made redundant from her job and offered her money to carry out these tasks, although she claims she had no idea they were terrorists. (Okay then). However she says she was given a number to contact the terrorists and Abby hopes she can use that to find them, even if they're not picking up.
Meanwhile the train is now heading through outer London and into Victoria station, close to where NCSC is situated. “We are the target!” explains Abby, who - alongside Saj - refuses to leave as the building is evacuated, and instead begins actioning her plan.
However on The Heart of Britain, Fraser has died of heart failure and collapsed on the laptop, destroying it. “You’ve locked The Driver out and there’s no one in control,” says Joe, who explains the update will take six minutes to complete, which is six minutes they don't have.
Abby realises that if UK Rail can switch the lights on the way into the station to red, then it could trigger the safety response on the train. The signalling centre isn’t responding, so Abby decides to run to the station to get them to do it from there. “Let me know the second the update is complete!”
However when she gets to the station, she can’t get access to the control room. She heads down the platform to the signal box to try and override the lights with a piece of kit from her suitcase (luckily her mate stuck around with her suitcase when the whole station was being evacuated, eh?)
Saj completes the update in the nick of time and she manages to change the lights, the safety system kicks in and the train grinds to a halt just before smashing through onto the station concourse.
Joe reveals he DID steal the money he was accused of taking and he was heading back to London to see his son, after his ex-wife revealed the truth about his crimes to the youngster.
When the train comes to a stop, Joe emerges to finally meet Abby. She says she won’t say anything to the authorities if he makes his escape, but he tells her it’s time he stopped running.
As Joe calls his son to tell him the truth about what he'd done, Abby inspects the train, before receiving a call from Saj who says they’ve finally zeroed in on the location of The Driver, but it’s not in Tehran, or Johannesburg, but Victoria!
It seems Pev (David Threlfall) was the mastermind of the whole conspiracy! He claims he did it as a warning as to what would happen if they sold off UK Rail. He says his plan was to crash an empty train into an empty station, to trigger change, before terrorists came up with a similar plot that was far more damaging.
He explains that when his plan went wrong and people got stuck on the train he gave Abby back the Real Time Train Viewer at Gretna in a bid to get them off. As far as he’s concerned the death of Daniel Geoghan and Fraser Warren, weren’t really his fault. “There’s an error in your code!” she says cheesily. “I never doubted you,” he replies as he’s bundled off by the police.
The Best Parts Of Nightsleeper
The BBC thriller Nightsleeper boasts an intriguing premise, although the show tries too many things at once and ends up an odd mess. Penned by BAFTA award-winning writer Nick Leather, the six-part series follows Joe Roag, an off-duty police officer who finds himself at the centre of a national disaster.
After boarding a train travelling from Glasgow to London, Joe quickly discovers that it's been hijacked by hackers. Teaming up with Abby Aysgarth (Roach) – the acting technical director at the National Cyber Security Centre – Joe and Abby must work together to stop the train, and identify the self-styled 'Driver' behind the attack.
Putting a fresh spin on the detective thriller, Nightsleeper is a must-watch thanks to its gripping plot, and immensely talented cast. The show delivers plenty of action, twists and turns, and although it might not be a perfect thriller, it’s still a fun, engaging watch. Plus, you might actually want to rewatch the series after the big reveal of who the 'Driver' is.
Nightsleeper is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Tune in Sundays and Mondays at 9pm on BBC One.
