Nightsleeper viewers criticise ‘absurd’ Kate Nash reference in new BBC thriller
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BBC audiences were left confused after a baffling moment in the latest drama series, Nightsleeper.
The latest thriller premiered on Sunday night (September 15) and features Joe Cole, known for his role in Peaky Blinders, as Joe Roag. He plays an off-duty police officer who ends up on a sleeper train traveling from Glasgow to London, only to discover that it has been taken over due to a cyber attack.
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the train is being operated remotely and is being turned into a weapon. This situation leaves Joe and Abby Aysgarth, the head of cybersecurity played by Alexandra Roach, as the only ones capable of halting it.
Audience members are wondering about the plausibility of the storyline, particularly during a scene where Joe and Abby begin to sing Kate Nash’s song “Foundations” to one another as the situation intensifies and turns into a hostage scenario.
One person commented on social media: “Is there anyone who can genuinely claim they've never sung along playfully to a Kate Nash song while facing a serious terrorist situation?”
Someone else commented, “Are they actually playing Kate Nash while the train is about to meet a disaster? I was really looking forward to this.”
"Viewer reactions to #Nightsleeper have been quite mixed, with some finding it so ridiculous that they question whether it's meant to be that way. The story has numerous gaps that make it hard to take seriously. One viewer mentioned they're going to watch episode 2 on iPlayer in hopes of getting some answers."
One viewer took a more measured approach, stating that the show was “quite enjoyable,” but noted that the dialogue was “excruciatingly poor,” particularly mentioning the “Kate Nash aspect.”
"Wait a second, did I just hear two characters in a 2024 show playfully reciting Kate Nash lyrics to one another?" someone else remarked.
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Another person mentioned that the Kate Nash moment deserves the "2024 award for ultimate cringeworthiness."
In the series, the criminals successfully place a physical device in the train's control room to execute their hack.
Joe and Abby need to collaborate to prevent an upcoming train disaster. Joe is onboard the train attempting to deactivate the hacking device while staying on the line with Abby. Meanwhile, her colleagues at the National Cyber Security Centre are hurriedly trying to identify the person responsible for the “hack-jack.”
As the story progresses, the duo attempts to use a faulty satellite phone to connect with each other in order to rescue the people on the ship.
In a review rating the series two stars, Lucy Mangan from The Guardian described the thriller as "incredibly terrible" and criticized its "poorly written script."
"As time goes by, things start to get more and more absurd," Mangan observes. "Moreover, the lines the unfortunate actors have to deliver only get worse."
Nightsleeper is currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
