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.
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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.
The two shows share more than their transportation setting, with both also making incredibly lightweight references to topical global politics, with Iran substituted for China in this instance.
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.
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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.
Nightsleeper is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Tune in Sundays and Mondays at 9pm on BBC One. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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