Jason Watkins plays a man driven to the brink in Channel 5 drama The Catch.
After his son’s death several years ago, naval officer-turned-fisherman Ed Collier is terrified his daughter Abbie (Poppy Gilbert) is about to exit his life after her new boyfriend Ryan (Aneurin Barnard) enters the picture.
Ed is suspicious of Ryan’s intentions, but the more he pushes the more he risks losing both Abbie and his wife Claire (Cathy Belton).
Ryan’s introduction also coincides with a “dark secret” from Ed’s past threatening to come to the surface and tear his world apart.
Is Ryan the person taunting Ed? Or is someone else trying to destroy him?
The Catch filming location – where was the Channel 5 drama filmed?
The Catch is “set against the hauntingly beautiful coastline of south-west England’, but the series wasn’t filmed there.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Belton revealed that they shot the drama in Dublin, “around Bray, north and south of the city”.
Balbriggan harbour was one of the spots they used, said Watkins. “It’s surprising because you think Dublin is a city but it’s actually sort of a seaside resort in some respects,” he added. “It’s surrounded by beaches, so when it was extraordinary weather it was 10 degrees hotter than it normally is at that time of year and it was sort of tropical.
“You did feel like you were in a capital city by the seaside, which I think is a really well-kept secret. I think most people think that you’d go and have a weekend as a cultural thing but actually when you spread out, there’s the beautiful coastline, so we made the most of that in this.”
Belton also revealed the history behind the house where the Collier family are based.
“Phyllis’s house was where the president of Ireland Paddy Hillery used to live many years ago,” she said. “It’s now empty and is used for various film projects.
“That was filmed on one side of the city and the set designer put sand up by the door and around the house. And we shot all the beach scenes in the other side of the city. It was all around Dublin.”
Watkins went on to discuss what it was about The Catch that first drew him in.
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“One of the reasons that I wanted to do this, there’s a film called Three Days of the Condor with Robert Redford and he’s this guy who’s suddenly put in an extreme situation,” he said. “And Redford’s character is quite cerebral. He’s a good thinker. He’s got a clear brain and he’s able to work his way out of this thing.
“Ed hasn’t got a clear brain because he’s got all these pressures, this emotional stuff, very real emotional stuff in the past and still in the present. So his thought processes are not perfect. He makes a lot of bad mistakes because he’s under pressure to deal with financial difficulties, the loss of their first child and the fear of losing their present child to someone else.
“And all these things are piling on top of us. He’s often just banging his head against the wall because he can’t see clearly.”
He added: “It’s a thriller and an emotional family drama at the same time.”
The Catch airs on Channel 5. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what else is on.
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