When The Capture hit screens in 2019, it was branded “preposterous”, “implausible” and “utter bobbins”. The BBC drama mined technology for horror, presenting a world in which ordinary footage can be easily manipulated and turned against us at the click of a button. In the show, characters are yanked into interrogation rooms and shown surveillance videos of them going about their day – only to see themselves doing heinous crimes they didn’t actually commit. It all felt like an outlandish proposition; perhaps a problem for another generation. But with AI firmly planting its computerised flag in the sand – and deepfakes now dominating social media – that world is a reality. In seven short years, The Capture has become the most prescient show on television.
“I remember reading some reviews of series one that were like, ‘Oh, this is so ridiculous, we’re so far away from this,’’ lead star Holliday Grainger tells me days before series three premieres on BBC One. “And in just a few years, it’s not just special tech guys in the military that are doing deep fakes, it’s anyone on TikTok. You can literally do it in your front room. The technology has evolved so quickly that the first series is almost passé.”
