Joe Cole has revealed that several of the stars of the upcoming BBC thriller Nightsleeper were left ‘sick and needing medication’ while filming the series.
The real-time thriller follows a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London which is hacked, and a government agency’s frantic efforts to intervene in the rapidly escalating events onboard.
Joe stars as Joe Roag, an off-duty police officer on board who must work over the phone with Abby Aysgarth (Alexandra Roach), the Acting Technical Director at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, as they attempt to bring the train to a halt before it reaches what might quite literally be its final destination.
Obviously the series wasn’t filmed on an actual train journey between the two cities, but the realistic set left some of the cast members feeling severe motion sickness.
‘The train was three sets of three carriages in a studio in Glasgow,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
‘From 8am every morning we were thrust into a dark studio and never left, but they had these incredible LED screens where they had filmed the journey from London to Glasgow and had the real-life world flashing past us.
‘Some of the actors were actually getting vertigo and sickness from it.’
Although Joe, 35, said he was one of the lucky ones to avoid falling ill, he still felt claustrophobic working long hours in the enclosed space.
‘It was also hot and stuffy, because you’ve got a whole crew there too. It was… cosy. It felt really intense at times, which I think added something.
‘Often we’d spend quite a long time on this train because sometimes it was a faff to get off and they had to put stairs in and help us down. We would often spend a good portion of the day just on this train, all together in this closed environment. And there are some big personalities and some very funny people in the cast. I think it added something to the to the claustrophobia of it all for sure.’
Reading the script for the six episodes for the first time, Joe wondered ‘how can this get any worse’ for all the characters.
‘I thought the writers might run out of ideas, but it got progressively more bonkers, which is perfect really and what you want and it’s certainly something I’d tune into if I was a viewer,’ he said, adding he became much more aware of the ‘scary’ threat of hacking while filming the series.
‘Yeah, I mean, it was interesting. I was just talking to somebody the other day about they like, “Do you think this could happen?” Just about if this could happen in real life? Although I don’t think it would be in this capacity, it’s a bit scary isn’t it,’ he said.
However, after filming concluded, Joe admitted he was unsettled about the next time he got onboard another train.
‘I wasn’t too keen on getting onto a train after this one if I’m honest, mainly because I spent so many hours on train carriages for about three months,’ he laughed.
Starting his acting career in the West End, Joe’s first screen credits came with roles on The Bill and Holby City, then going on to star as John Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
Leaving the series after three seasons in 2017, Joe previously said he felt like he’d ‘exhausted’ his character who (spoiler alert!) was shot dead by Italian assassins.
However, with Peaky movie on the way, is there any chance viewers could see the beloved character return in some way?
‘I’m dead baby!’ he laughed in response.
‘Unless they put a big sheet over my head and two slits in and I come back as Casper the Friendly ghost, I am not back. I mean, in saying that, Steven Knight has done dream sequences and flashbacks….(so maybe there is a chance),’ he quipped.
After leaving Peaky, Joe was cast in Gangs of London, starring as Sean Wallace, who fights for leadership of his family’s criminal empire after his father’s death.
The first season premiered in 2020 and was followed by a second in 2022, with Joe teasing fans when they can expect to see the next batch of episodes.
‘It should be out the end of this year or early next year. Sometime in winter,’ he revealed.
‘But yes, we just finished shooting season 3.’
Until then, he’s promised viewers they are in for a wild ride when tuning into Nightsleeper.
‘You’re gonna be in for a few surprises for sure,’ he said.
This article was first published on September 3.
Nightsleeper starts on Sunday, September 15 at 9pm on BBC One. All episodes will be available to stream that day on BBC iPlayer.
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