The sea, the sea. Truly, I do not ever want to find myself at the bottom of it in a giant metal tube, and because of this, I’m only able to only watch the BBC’s briny new drama, Vigil (from 29 August, 9pm), through my fingers. At times, I even fancy myself short of oxygen, though this breathlessness may also have something to do with Shaun Evans, who plays a Royal Navy coxswain – “I’m a walking HR department” – called Glover (you’ll know this actor best as the young Morse in ITV’s Endeavour). There’s something about Evans’ voice, low and stubborn and reassuring, that really does it for me. Frightened as I am of the idea of an enforced stay on the HMS Vigil, a nuclear submarine that’s as long as two football pitches and as high as four double-decker buses, if he was there to guide me through its crepuscular corridors, I might just be able to endure the experience.
All of which is not to say that Vigil, brought to us by the producers of Line of Duty and written by Tom Edge, isn’t crazily enjoyable. It is, perhaps, a touch bonkers. Cleaning your teeth before bed, you find yourself wondering if any of it could really happen – a feeling that grows and grows until, by the time you put out the light, you’re convinced it’s the most preposterous thing you’ve ever seen. The plot is more overloaded than a family hatchback before a bank holiday. But while it’s on, it’s incredibly exciting and completely convincing. Even through the constant tension and turmoil, the mind catches wonderingly on the smallest details: the silver birch trees on the walls of the mess, seemingly designed to make sailors forget – as if they ever could – the darkness that’s all around; the shelf-like bunks, which come with belts for when the sea is rough; the chain of command, as frangible as steel. You don’t need a murder investigation for this realm to seem utterly terrifying.
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