Martin Compston has announced a date for his brand new show The Rig. The Line of Duty star teased fans with a trailer on Instagram today - and revealed that the brand new drama will be out on January 6, 2023.
He wrote: “What is going on out there?” Chuffed to finally reveal The Rig is coming to @amazonprime on Jan 6th 2023."
And fans were buzzing at the news. One wrote: " Wow looks amazing! What a cast!" Another added: "Here he comes - our boy smashin’ it again and again! This looks bloody EPIC - Proud of you bro!" A third said: "finally, been waiting ages for this."
The Rig, which will air on Amazon Prime Video, is directed by John Strickland and written by David Macpherson. It stars Compston, Iain Glen, Emily Hampshire and Mark Bonnar. The production was backed by a £500,000 fund from the Scottish Government.
The series takes place on the Kishorn Bravo oil rig, located off the coast of Scotland and the synopsis reveals the crew are left cut off from the mainland after a mysterious fog envelops them. This leads to tensions on board the vessel with the crew are "driven to the limits of both their loyalties and their endurance, into a confrontation with forces beyond their imagination."
Iain Glen will portray Magnus MacMillan, the leader of the crew and the offshore installation manager of the rig. Meanwhile Compston, who is set to play communications officer called Fulmer Hamilton, will be reunited with his Line of Duty cast mates Rochenda Sandall, Owen Teale, and Mark Bonnar.
Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire will also appear in the six-part drama as scientist Rose Mason.
And as if the day couldn't get any better, Compston also announced that his other show, Mayflies, is part of the BBC's festive schedule.
The series is based on Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's book of the same name, which won Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2021. It has been described as an “intimate and devastating portrait of male friendship”.
In a statement to the BBC, O’Hagan said of the TV adaptation: “The story is a very personal one to me, and it’s amazing to see the characters come to life.”
Compston, 37, is set to play Jimmy, one half of the pair at the heart of this drama, alongside Tony Curran, who plays best friend Tully Dawson. Set in a small Scottish town, Mayflies tells the story of the two young men, who form a friendship based on music, films, and, a rebel spirit.
Opening in the summer of 1986, the series follows the pair as they rush towards the “climax of their youth” – a music festival in Manchester. There, against the backdrop of the music they love, they make a vow: to go at life differently.
Thirty years later, however, things change. One day, the phone rings – and when Jimmy picks up, he learns that Tully has the worst kind of news, and a request “that will test their friendship, love, and loyalty to the limit”.
As the synopsis concludes: “Mayflies is a memorial to youth’s euphoria and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.”
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here .
