A moment of WEAKNESS

An ordinary family man finds himself plunged into a suffocating web of lies following a momentary lapse of reason in Channel 5's latest thriller, Coma.

Written by Ben Edwards (Miss Scarlet and the Duke), the four-parter centres around mild-mannered Simon Bamford (played by McDonald & Dodds star Jason Watkins), who's juggling financial stress and redundancy, while being terrorised by a gang of local teens intent on causing trouble in his neighbourhood.

Simon and his nurse wife, Beth (Outnumbered's Claire Skinner), are desperate to move to a safer area for the sake of their young daughter, Sophie. But a doorstep confrontation with 17-year-old tearaway Jordan Franklin (rising star Joe Barber) ends in horror when Simon snaps and lands a punch that puts the lad in a coma.

With detectives assuming he's simply a witness to the attack, Simon makes the fateful, split-second decision to lie his way out of trouble.

But he doesn't bank on Jordan's violent career-criminal father Paul (After the Flood's Jonas Armstrong), who'll stop at nothing to get to the truth...

'Simon tells a lie that grows exponentially, and the consequences of his actions take him into very dangerous areas,' says Jason. 'It's an intelligent thriller with deep characters who we can all connect with.' Here, the cast introduce TV Times to their characters and reveal how their stories intertwine with some very dark consequences...

BETH BAMFORD

CLAIRE SKINNER on playing a devoted wife who makes some surprising decisions

'I remember reading the script and finding it striking in terms of how unusual it was. I really didn't quite know where it was going!

'I also loved the characters, because they're all slightly off. You think Beth is going to be straightdown-the-line, but she doesn't quite do what you think she's going to do, and I found that really fascinating.