‘The Control Room’: BBC Sets July Premiere For 3-Part Thriller Starring Iain De Caestecker & Joanna Vanderham
The BBC has set a July premiere date for the three-part thriller ‘The Control Room‘ starring Iain De Caestecker (‘Roadkill’, ‘Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D’) and Joanna Vanderham (‘Dancing On The Edge’, ‘The Go-Between’).
The drama tells the story of Gabe (De Caestecker), an ordinary man who works as an emergency call handler for the Strathclyde Ambulance Service in Glasgow. Gabe’s world is turned upside down when he receives a desperate life-and-death call from a woman (Vanderham) who appears to know him. With Gabe under pressure to work out who she is, he makes a decision that threatens to have devastating consequences…
Award-winning writer Nick Leather (‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Murdered For Being Different’) was inspired to pen the story following an incident with his own daughter. “One morning, I went in to wake my daughter up and I couldn’t; she was just floppy,” commented Leather. “We called 999 and in that desperate few minutes, I realised sort of how profoundly the person on the other end of the line can help you and affect you. Their manner is so important and its quite an intense relationship for a few minutes. Everything was okay in the end but then the next time I sat down and tried to come up with a story, I wrote two things at the top; one was call room handler and caller. I then put a circle around it and tried to think of the way the relationship between those two people would be and a scene that involved them both.
‘The Control Room’ is produced by Hartswood Films (‘Sherlock’, ‘Dracula’, ‘Inside Man’) for BBC One and BBC iPlayer and written by award-winning writer Nick Leather (‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Murdered For Being Different’). Directed by Amy Neil (‘Trust Me’), the executive producers are Elaine Cameron for Hartswood Films and Gaynor Holmes for the BBC. Eric Coulter is the producer.
“I would say it’s one of the most exciting scripts I’ve ever read and it was a page-turner from start to finish,” adds De Caestecker. “I just had to know how it ended. Nick [Leather] has a way of using very relatable and universal themes and emotions. The characters are not two-dimensional. What I really like about The Control Room is that it’s a mishmash between different genres. You have the obvious thriller side of it, with lots of plot twists and cliff-hangers at every corner. On the other hand, it could be described as a love story, about enduring love and how far a person might go to protect somebody or someone that they love. There’s also a coming-of-age quality to it as well. Nick is a master writer 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 Control Room‘ premieres Sunday, 17 July 2022 at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
