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TV: The Rig starring Martin Compston, Mark Bonnar and Iain Glen debuts this week

The Rig stars Iain Glen. Picture: PA Photo/Prime Video
The Rig stars Iain Glen. Picture: PA Photo/Prime Video

What’s the story?

The Rig.

Tell me more.

The six-part sci-fi thriller is set on the fictional Kinloch Bravo platform in the North Sea where, as the crew prepares to return to the mainland, an eerie fog sweeps in. Communications go down and all hell breaks loose.

Trapped miles offshore, tension and claustrophobia build as a series of unexplained and seemingly supernatural events unfold.

Any big names?

A glorious mash-up of Line of Duty, Game of Thrones and Guilt alumni. There is Martin Compston, Mark Bonnar and Rochenda Sandall (Line of Duty); Iain Glen and Owen Teale (Game of Thrones); and Emun Elliott (who starred with Bonnar in Guilt).

The impressive cast also includes Canadian actor Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek) and rising Scots talent Molly Vevers (Chubby Funny).

Anything else?

The Rig was created and written by David Macpherson who grew up in Alness on the Cromarty Firth. He drew inspiration from the “strange things” that his father, who built rigs in nearby Nigg and later worked offshore, would tell him stories about.

Macpherson says that while the show isn’t meant to be a climate change lecture, it does play “with a lot of big ideas about where we are nowadays in the world and where we might be going”.

When can I watch?

The Rig premieres on Prime Video this Friday.