In ITV’s new six-part crime drama ‘Passenger’, ‘Loki’ star Wunmi Mosaku swaps from the intergalactic Time Variance Authority for the rather more local law enforcement efforts of Chadder Vale’s police force to play DC Riya Ajunwa, a cop investigating a mysterious case in an insular northern community.
The show is written by ‘Broadchurch’ actor Andrew Buchan and it may just boast similar levels of breakout potential to that ITV crime drama. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest labyrinthine crime thriller to hit our tellies.
When is the release date for Passenger?
The first episode of ‘Passengers’ airs at 9pm, Sunday March 24 on ITV1, with episode two airing at 9pm on March 25, and the remaining four episodes screening in the same Sunday/Monday slots over the following fortnight.
The full series drops on ITVX on March 24, and the show will be available to stream via BritBox outside the UK.
Who’s in the cast?
‘His House’ and ‘Loki’ star Wunmi Mosaku plays the show’s lead character, DC Riya Ajunwa, while ‘Shameless’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ star David Threlfall is unpopular outsider Jim Bracknell, the wizened manager of a fracking site near Chadder Vale.
Rowan Robinson – also a mysterious presence in last year’s Poirot movie ‘A Haunting in Venice’ – is the girl, Katie Wells, who vanishes temporarily and inexplicably. Barry Sloane plays Eddie Wells, Katie’s no good, fresh-from-prison dad – who Riya locked up five years earlier for assaulting Jim Bracknell and who presumably harbours a grudge – and Natalie Gavin is his wife Joanne.
Riya’s fellow cops include Arian Nik and Ella Bruccoleri as trainee officers Nish and Ali, and ‘After Life’s Jo Hartley as Chief Constable Linda Markel. ‘She’s a little bit like the mayor in “Jaws”, telling the town there’s no sharks and to open the beach,’ explains Hartley of her character.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ryan (‘Linda Green’) is local-man-made-good Derek Jackson, the affable and well-connected owner of the local bread factory, who is trying to win back his ex (Debbie Rush). His relationship with his half-brother Kane (Nico Mirallegro), an employee at his factory, will be an additional source of tension in ‘Passenger’.
What’s the basic premise?
The mystery unfolds in the fictional – and, at the time, wintry – village of Chadder Vale, on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border. Here, five years after leaving the Met Police, 40-year-old Manchester-raised DC Riya Ajunwa is on the hunt for a big case to reawaken her dormant sleuthing instincts in a community that seems to be hiding one in its midst.
‘Then one night local girl Katie Wells mysteriously disappears,’ picks up the official synopsis. ‘The town barely has time to register her absence before she reappears the next day, apparently safe and sound. The townsfolk ask few questions and normal life resumes.’
‘As a series of strange happenings and increasingly shocking crimes start unfolding within the town, the residents resort to short-sighted theories and blame outside influences such as the fracking site and its manager Jim Bracknell. As things become stranger, so the people push back on Riya’s absurd notion that something is not right with this town. But what are they so afraid of?’
And outside the village there’s a forest that seems to hold secrets of its own – manifest by a mutilated stag found on the road. Throw in a controversial fracking site, more vanishing young people, and an old tree of mythical significance and you have all the plot-thickening ingredients of a satisfying potboiler.
A big-city cop stumbling upon the dark secrets of an insular rural community, and David Threlfall in the cast? Sounds like a darker ‘Hot Fuzz’. Only it’s snowy, so Cold Fuzz.
What are the reviews saying?
Reviews for episode one are in and the consensus is that ‘Passenger’ does a great job of transplanting the supernatural chills of ‘Confident, atmospheric and packed with creepy realism,’ is The Guardian’s verdict, describing the series as ‘a convincingly detail-oriented paranormal horror’.
The Times praised its well-written character, adding that ‘the dialogue is a highlight’. Den of Geek calls it ‘comedic and sinister, with a terrific cast led by Wunmi Mosaku’, adding that it’s ‘a top binge-watch that’ll keep you entertained and guessing’.
The Independent was more mixed, criticising the show’s surfeit of story threads. ‘What “Passenger” lacks is the sparseness and simplicity of great crime drama,’ notes its critic.
Is there a trailer?
There is, and you can check it out below.
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