The Capture (TV series)

''The Capture'' is a British mystery thriller series created, written and directed by Ben Chanan, and starring Holliday Grainger, Callum Turner, Laura Haddock, Ben Miles, Cavan Clerkin, Paul Ritter, and Ron Perlman.

The series premiered on BBC One on 3 September 2019, and received positive reviews from critics. It was announced in June 2020 that a second series had been commissioned. The second series began airing on BBC One in the UK on 28 August 2022 and it also premiered on Peacock in the US on 3 November 2022.

Premise

In series one, after being acquitted of a war crime in Afghanistan, former British army Lance Corporal Shaun Emery finds himself accused of kidnapping and murdering his barrister Hannah Roberts, backed by CCTV evidence. Whilst Emery works to clear his name, fast-tracked Detective Inspector Rachel Carey of Homicide and Serious Crime Command begins to uncover a complex conspiracy surrounding Emery, calling into question the validity of the footage.

In series two, rising politician Isaac Turner finds himself caught up in a similar conspiracy after a deepfake of him causes yet another race against time for Rachel to expose the truth before it is too late.

Cast

Main

* Holliday Grainger as DI/DCI Rachel Carey
* Cavan Clerkin as DS Patrick Flynn
* Ginny Holder as DS/DI Nadia Latif
* Ben Miles as Commander Danny Hart
* Ron Perlman as CIA Section Chief Frank Napier
* Lia Williams as DSU Gemma Garland
* Nigel Lindsay as DCI Tom Kendricks
* Daisy Waterstone as Abigail Carey, Rachel's half-sister
* Peter Singh as DI Phillips, later seconded to the CIA

Series 1

* Callum Turner as Lance Corporal Shaun Emery
* Sophia Brown as Karen Merville, Emery's ex-girlfriend
* Paul Ritter as Marcus Levy
* Famke Janssen as CIA Executive Consultant Jessica Mallory
* Ralph Ineson as DCI Alec Boyd
* Laura Haddock as Hannah Roberts, Emery's barrister
* Barry Ward as Charlie Hall, Emery's solicitor
* Tommy McDonnell as Matt, Sean Emery's best friend
* Alan Williams as Eddie Emery

Series 2

* Paapa Essiedu as Isaac Turner, Security Minister and MP for Hazlemere South
* Indira Varma as Khadija Khan, presenter of ''Newsnight''
* Andy Nyman as Home Secretary Rowan Gill
* Rob Yang as Yan Wanglei, UK head of Chinese artificial intelligence company XANDA
* Charlie Murphy as Simone Turner, Isaac's wife
* Tessa Wong as DC Chloe Tan
* Harry Michell as Rhys Edwards, a political aide
* Natalie Dew as Aliza Clarke, a political aide
* Joseph Arkley as Gregory Knox, CEO of Truro Analytics
* Angus Wright as Anthony Reed, OBE, BBC security correspondent

Production

Filming locations

Production filmed interior scenes at Canterbury Prison, Kent, England doubling as HMP Gladstone, London for episode one. Lead character Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) is released from prison wearing a soldier's uniform. He later is rearrested and returns to the prison.

Other interior scenes were filmed at the Printworks venue in Rotherhithe, and The Shard.

Series 2 of The Capture began airing on BBC One on Sunday 28 August 2022.

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

Reception

Critical response

Series 1

The first series was reviewed positively by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 92% with an average rating of 8.1/10, based on reviews from 39 critics. The site's critical consensus said, "Gripping to the very end, ''The Capture'''s well-built tension culminates in a riveting revitalization of a tired genre". On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, it received a score of 72 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

''The Telegraph'' awarded the episode four stars, labelling the series as "riveting", and ''The Independent'' also awarded it four stars, designating it an "intriguing, but rather flawed, sort of '' Big Brother'' thriller set in our contemporary world of digital snooping". In his review in ''The Times'' James Jackson referred to the drama as a "neatly structured thriller... clearly out to interrogate surveillance culture", also awarding four stars. ''The Guardian'' was less enthusiastic, concluding it to be a "twisty if lacklustre drama", giving the opening episode only three stars out of five.

Reviews improved over the course of the series, and the finale was highly praised by critics, with many drawing positive comparisons with the BBC
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