Nightsleeper – Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole discuss phone acting, character development and confined sets. Nightsleeper is a real-time thriller for BBC iPlayer and BBC One
Created by BAFTA-winning writer Nick Leather, Nightsleeper is a six-part series in which a train is ‘hackjacked’ and driven through one single night from Glasgow to London on an uncertain journey. Part fast-moving heart-in-mouth action-adventure and part twisty-turny whodunnit detective story, it’s a roller coaster techno-thriller where no one is ever quite who they seem. Read our ★★★★ review and watch Nightsleeper on BBC One and iPlayer from today.
Q: Alexandra, what drew you to Nightsleeper?
Alexandra: When I read the scripts, I really could hear Abby’s voice, and I’ve never had that before. I loved how fearless she was. She’s working class with this spiky energy, and I knew that I needed to be the voice of this character. She’s an underdog while being in charge of this whole operation as Acting Technical Director at the National Cyber Security Centre, and I loved that contrast. I really related to that pressure of wanting to succeed, of having people around her doubt her and for her to prove them wrong. I wanted to step up and prove myself as well; I’ve been acting since I was a kid, the last 20 years or something, so to finally be given a chance to step up and lead a big BBC show felt like a big deal.
Q: Joe, how much fun was making Nightsleeper?
Joe: A lot of fun. It was an interesting challenge because we were shooting in a studio just outside Glasgow. We were cooped up in these small carriages for 10, 12 hours a day, and they’d pre-recorded the entirety of the train journey exteriors from Aberdeen to London on LED screens, which were outside the train. I’ve often been fortunate enough to work in real environments, but this was all pretend, so it was a different way of doing things.
Q: Alexandra, how would you describe your character, Abby?
Alexandra: 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. She lost her dad a few months ago and has ploughed herself into work. She was first discovered by the National Cyber Security Centre because she hacked into the system when she was a teenager and came to their attention as someone with potential. She was plucked out of South Wales and brought to London at an early age, and trained in this stuff, and it’s become her life. Her work is almost her entire personality, and she doesn’t really know who she is outside of that. 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.
What’s new on BBC iPlayer – Nightsleeper Special
Q: Joe, is your character comfortable being a lone wolf, or does he prefer working with people? Could you relate to him?
Joe: The whole show is about everyone doing their bit and working as a team to stop this train. 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.
I tried to bring the fun, cheeky bit of myself to this role because many action heroes are just big, hard men with gruff voices. I tried to be free with it and play a real person, warts and all. Hopefully, the audience will try to put themselves in the shoes of the characters in the show and try to see who they would be within that group of people. We all want to hope we’d be the one who steps up and runs about and saves the day, but would we really? I’d like to think I’d be more like Joe in that moment, but that’s probably because I’ve done all these different movies, so weirdly, I sometimes feel like an action hero.
Q: Alexandra, how does Abby’s relationship with Joe develop?
Alexandra: She likes him from the off. She trusts him, and they share a sense of humour. There’s a scene where they’re singing a Kate Nash song together, which shows their chemistry and shared perspectives. Although it’s a massive, scary situation, they just connect on a human, basic level, which becomes a life raft for them as the relationship is tested and surprises and secrets come out about them both.
Q: Was the phone acting a challenge?
Alexandra: The phone acting was really challenging, and it’s rare to be shooting a show with your co-star and not actually see them physically. I was a bit nervous about how that would work, but I know Joe a little bit, so that definitely helped. I came up with a system that worked for me, with an excellent Scottish actor, John Scougall, reading with me on set behind the camera. That was so helpful to have him there. That quietness and intimacy anchor Abby in the show, and those moments feel like a bit of a haven within the confines of this crazy situation.
Joe: It was about trying to create some rapport between Alex and me, even though we never actually met for this. We were trying to create some sort of relationship over the phone, although I’ve just got someone reading while I’m talking into a prop phone. It’s a different challenge when you can’t look somebody in the eye. You gain so much from somebody through their physical being and their eyes because you can read their emotions non-verbally. When you’re on the phone, you sometimes have to perform a little bit more to create some energy. You can’t just talk in a monotonous tone.
Q: Joe, was it fun to play off all those different actors in a small space?
Joe: Yeah, there are some amazing actors in that cast: Sharon Small, James Cosmo, Alex Ferns… Everybody brought something different, and they were funny as well, so it was a joy. Hopefully, we’re creating a picture of what it might look like in the UK on one of these trains: ordinary people in an extraordinary circumstance, having to step outside their comfort zone and save the day. That’s why I’m looking forward to it: Hopefully, people in the UK will really be able to relate to these characters.
Q: Alexandra, would you like to play Abby again?
Alexandra: On the last day, I took her jacket off and hung it up and thought: please let me meet this character again and take her on another adventure. She made me braver. She stayed with me, and she’s in my bones now.
Q: Joe, how do you feel about train travel after making Nightsleeper?
Joe: I had a stag do in Glasgow not long after the shoot, and quite a lot of the lads got the night sleeper up there. I was like, ‘Guys, do not get on that thing.’ I think they had a pretty rough journey and were knackered the whole trip. But it hasn’t put me off trains!
Follow Us