Lia Williams is all kinds of caustic brilliance in conspiracy thriller The Capture
“Accepting you can rarely see the whole picture is part of the job”
I’m working my way through the TV shows I can watch on my free trials on various services, which has lead me to The Capture which aired on BBC1 in late 2019 and somehow completely passed me by. This is particularly egregious since it features Lia Williams the kind of amazing top boss role that makes you wonder why she isn’t better known.
Created, written and directed by Ben Chanan, The Capture takes place in a surveillance state that not too long ago would have been described as a near-future dystopia but now, is just London on a Tuesday. In a society that closely monitors CCTV, so much of justice depends on the reliability of those camera image. But what happens when that confidence is eroded?
Holliday Grainger’s DI-on-the-rise and Callum Turner’s just-out-of-wrongful-conviction squaddie find themselves engaged in a game of cat and mouse when he’s caught on film assaulting his lawyer who has now gone missing. But as loose ends frustratingly refuse to tie up and he vehemently profuses his innocence, it soon becomes clear that the cat is several layers higher than anyone could imagine.
I won’t give away much more, aside from a tip of the hat to some great casting moves – I always love to see Nigel Lindsay pop up in things but there’s Sharon Rooney, Jennifer Saayeng, Mike Noble and more tucked away in here too. alongside some proper surprises. And as twisty as the plotting gets, it didn’t lose me – am glad a second series is apparently on the way.
