WAKING NIGHTMARES

JESSICA RAINE AND PETER CAPALDI PLAY CHARACTERS LINKED BY FATE IN THE DEVIL'S HOUR- OR IS IT SOMETHING OTHERWORLDLY...?

- DARREN SCOTT

DON’T LOOK AT THE clock if you wake up with a start in the middle of the 7 night. Chances are it’s the Devil’s Hour, between 3.00am and 4.00am - specifically at 3.33am, a time where things can cross between realms and:the unexplainable happens. Just turn over and tell yourself it’s only a dream... 

Child protection officer Lucy (Jessica Raine) has been plagued by nightmares her entire life, waking at 3.33am with a jolt and a feeling of déjà vu. Her eight-year-old son Isaac, meanwhile, is an emotionless husk – unable to enjoy music or food, or even to laugh or cry. Unknown to Lucy, a murderer – Gideon (Peter Capadi) – is watching from afar and his victims are linked to the mother who’s living her life on a precipice.

The series’ concept, its stars will at least try to explain, is a difficult one to nail down – particularly without giving away spoilers. Written by Tom Moran and produced by Hartswood Films (yes, it’s a Sue Vertue and Steven Moffat production), it’s a thriller, and it’s a murder mystery, but there’s something else to it.

DARK TIMES 

“It’s quite odd because it’s very grounded in reality,” Raine tells SFX. “There’s not a lot of supernatural shenanigans going on, it’s just odd. Because the characters are really richly drawn and weird things keep happening and people react the way that you would expect them to, there’s no superhero antics, everyone’s very flawed. I don’t quite know what genre to put it in. I don’t really know what to compare it to, and I think that’s a good thing.”