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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Michael Hogan

‘Spooks meets Black Mirror’: how The Capture became the year’s most wildly compelling TV show

Holliday Grainger as DCI Rachel Carey and Paapa Essiedu as Isaac Turner in BBC One’s The Capture.
Holliday Grainger as DCI Rachel Carey and Paapa Essiedu as Isaac Turner in BBC One’s The Capture. Photograph: Laurence Cendrowicz/BBC/Heyday/NBC Universal

Trust nobody. Suspect everyone. And while you are at it, stick a small square of tape over your webcam. Surveillance thriller The Capture has got the nation hooked – and fretting about updating privacy settings. Think Spooks meets Black Mirror and you are in the right postcode. No mainstream BBC drama has been this gripping since early Sherlock, mid-period Line of Duty or that day in July when 50 MPs resigned.

The Capture has earned a huge, fiercely devoted following over the course of its two precision-plotted seasons. The debut run averaged 7.6m viewers and was 2019’s most requested new show on iPlayer. The current series is even better, its well-crafted tension building to a climax beautifully for Monday night’s extended 70-minute finale. Tell your friends – but only using burner phones and CCTV blindspots.

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