Brand new Channel 5 drama Compulsion is set to tackle gambling addiction, following a paramedic who struggles with PTSD and later self-medicates with online gambling.
Leanne Best plays addict Jenny, while Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and a Funeral) plays a stranger who offers to help Jenny fend off loan sharks, proposing a risky strategy that could land her behind bars.
The synopsis teases: “After surviving a major disaster, paramedic Jenny Challoner appears to be coping on the outside but, in private, she’s suffering severe PTSD. To escape her pain, Jenny’s fallen into addiction to the point where she’s about to lose everything she’s ever cared about.
“Hope arrives in the nick of time in the shape of Sasha Santoro; a good Samaritan who helps Jenny in her most desperate hour of need. As the two women bond, Sasha offers Jenny a solution to all her problems. But can Sasha be trusted? Or is Jenny about to lose the most dangerous gamble of her life?”
Read on for the cast and characters in Compulsion.
Leanne Best plays Jenny Challoner
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/04/Compulsion20EPISODE202_LA_10_09_21_JS-54_ReferenceImage_m39663-799b530.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Who is Jenny Challoner? Jenny is a paramedic who is involved in a train crash and afterwards struggles to control her titular “compulsion” – online gambling.
Leanne Best explained: “On the surface Jenny is a woman who should be fine, everything should be OK. She has a husband that really loves her, she adores her daughter and she has a job that she’s really excelled in. She has a nice home and she has good friends. There is an allusion to some mildly compulsive behaviour in her past, but actually she’s managed to make a really lovely life for herself.
“Then she’s involved in a train crash and she becomes utterly unable to manage her own behaviour and her compulsion to gamble.”
Where have I seen Leanne Best before? She played the title character in The Woman in Black 2, and recently played Frida Rask in Young Wallander. Viewers may also recognise her for her roles in the likes of Cold Feet, Cotton Wool, The Infiltrator, Tin Star, Close to Me, and Carnival Row, among others.
Anna Chancellor plays Sasha
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/04/Compulsion20EPISODE202_140921_E2_0034_ReferenceImage_m39657-a7c5ed6.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Who is Sasha? A seeming “good Samaritan” who helps Jenny during her gambling addiction. But is she all she appears?
Explaining what about the role appealed to her, Anna Chancellor said: “I thought that Sasha would be a really fun part to play. I like the fact that you think she’s one thing and then she turns out to be something else, I thought that was great. It was a really great job for me, I really enjoyed the experience.”
Where have I seen Anna Chancellor before? She rose to fame playing Henrietta (or “Duck Face”) in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and has since gone on to star in both big and small screen projects, including the recently returned BBC divorce drama The Split (as Melanie Aickman). She’s also starred in Pennyworth, The Watch, Come Away, Trust, Shetland, The Crown (as Lady Rosse), and What a Girl Wants.
Hayley Mills plays Connie Bertram
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/04/Compulsion20EPISODE202_140921_E2_0049_ReferenceImage_m39659-5d31bd9.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Who is Connie Bertram? A ruthless loan shark who Jenny owes money to.
“She’s ruthless and she can’t empathise with other people’s pain. She’s a sociopath but she doesn’t think she is,” Hayley Mills said of her on-screen character. “Her focus and her motivation is just to make money, and she completely believes that she’s providing a service, and that people wouldn’t be able to get the money they needed from the bank at this short notice, but she will provide it.
“She doesn’t have any feeling that what she’s doing is morally reprehensible and that she’s putting the screws on people in a way that is just adding to the pain and misery of their situation.”
Where have I seen Hayley Mills before? The actress was a famed child star in the 1960s, starring Whistle Down the Wind and That Darn Cat!, and playing Pollyanna in the film of the same name, and twins Susan and Sharon in the original The Parent Trap. She’s since gone on to appear in Wild at Heart, Pitching In, Unforgotten, and Moving On.
Danny Ashok plays Chris
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/04/Compulsion_EPISODE201_30_09_21_JS-45_ReferenceImage_m39645-1182ccf.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Who is Chris? Jenny’s husband, from whom she hides her addiction.
Where have I seen Danny Ashok? He’s starred in Deep Water, Roadkill, Strike, Takeover, Little Birds, Cobra and more.
Krissi Bohn plays Ali
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/04/Compulsion_EPISODE201_LA_05_09_21_JS-71_ReferenceImage_m39652-4eea6b4.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Who is Ali? Jenny’s best friend, who worries for her.
Where have I seen Krissi Bohn before? She played Jenna Kamara in Coronation Street, Jean in The A Word, and appeared in the likes of Innocent, Anne, Vera, and Years and Years (as Lucie Denham).
Compulsion begins on Channel 5 and My5 at 9pm tonight (12th April). Visit our TV Guide for more viewing picks.
The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.