Well, it\u2019s safe to say that brand new BBC One drama Vigil<\/a> got off to a dramatic start with its first episode tonight. Within the first 10 minutes or so, we saw a fishing trawler drowned, some angry words on board the titular submarine, and then \u2013 in a huge early twist \u2013 the death of a character played by none other than Line of Duty<\/a>\u2018s Martin Compston.<\/p>\n Compston was one of the biggest names in a star-studded cast for the show, and so the fact his character Craig Burke didn\u2019t survive past the opening credits undoubtedly goes down as a huge shock. And the show\u2019s creator and lead writer Tom Edge has spoken exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> about the dramatic moment, explaining why it was so vital to cast an actor of Compston\u2019s pedigree in the role for maximum impact.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I think there were a few things,\u201d he explained. \u201c[Production company] World has almost developed a reputation for killing extremely good actors before the final credits have run on the first episode \u2013 I\u2019m sure one day, the entire announced cast of one of their shows will be killed within 30 seconds!<\/p>\n \u201cBut actually, what we really needed from that character is somebody who is good enough to make a really indelible mark with the limited time that they have on the screen,\u201d he continued.\u00a0 \u201cAnd certainly, Martin can do that. And I also feel like, I don\u2019t want to spoil anything, but I feel like it\u2019s more, there is more than just his sort of ghost that sort of hangs over as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cI think his voice and his intention and ultimately, the reason behind his death\u2026 I think they go a long way with it. And hopefully, he is a character who right until the final moments, you feel like you have a relationship with. We knew we wanted someone great to take that on and yes, he really was.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how Compston felt about taking on the role Edge added: \u201cYou know what, even though there were limitations to how much we were filming with him because of the nature of what happens to him, his approach was still really exacting. And we had a really good dialogue about the nature of the video messages that he leaves. And he worked really hard and was really precise.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that came from knowing not only that he\u2019s a really committed actor who was always going to do a great job, but those scenes had to tell an enormous impact compared to the time he would be on screen, so I\u2019m really grateful to him for taking that on.\u201d<\/p> So where does Craig Burke\u2019s death leave us? Well, the official explanation provided by the Navy is that he died of a heroin overdose, but it very quickly becomes clear that something a little more sinister is going on. Detective Amy Silva (Surrane Jones) is tasked with spending three days on the submarine to get to the bottom of the mystery, but after her rather dramatic arrival on board it is soon apparent that not everyone in the crew is going to be particularly cooperative. For the most part, she is left in the company of the boat\u2019s coxswain Elliot Glover (Shaun Evans) who appears to be one of the more welcoming people on the submarine, although admittedly that isn\u2019t saying a lot, especially when we consider that Evans has teased that the character \u201chas a secret\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anyway, by the end of this episode Amy has already deduced several key things about the case \u2013\u00a0 including the fact that the evidence suggests the heroin was placed in Craig\u2019s nose by someone looking to cover up a more suspicious death. It seems far more likely that, rather than dying of an overdose, Craig died of a delayed brain haemorrhage arising from when he was assaulted earlier that evening. That would explain why there were bruises on his head, and why Amy discovered blood splattered on a wall near where Craig was last spotted alive \u2013 while the boat\u2019s medic Tiffany Docherty (Anjli Mohindra) also reports giving Craig a paracetamol that night after he complained of a headache.<\/p>\n As for who could be responsible for the death, it\u2019s a little soon to say just yet, but there are certainly a few early contenders. Officer Hadlow (Sex Education<\/a>\u2018s Adam Swindells) certainly seems rather sketchy, and moreover, was the first person to discover Craig\u2019s death, while his colleague Adams was among the last people to see him alive. Then there\u2019s Craig\u2019s bunkmate Gary Walsh, who appears to have a less than positive view of the deceased, and the boat\u2019s second in command Mark Prentice (Adam James) who seems particularly eager to undermine Amy\u2019s investigation. It\u2019s far too soon to draw any conclusions yet, but it\u2019s probably worth keeping an eye out for these particular crew members going forwards.<\/p>\n Amy\u2019s mission is also made all the more difficult by a few other factors. For one, it is clear that being on the submarine is bringing traumatic memories back to the fore \u2013 with a few snippets of flashbacks revealing that she was in some kind of car accident that also saw her plunged under the sea\u00a0 \u2013 while we also learn that she is taking medication for anxiety and depression. What\u2019s more, the boat is clearly in the midst of a seemingly unrelated crisis \u2013 linked to the aforementioned incident with the fishing trawler.<\/p>\n Towards the end of the episode, it is revealed that it was in fact another submarine that led to that boat sinking, which spells all kinds of problems for Vigil: most significantly that the boat is potentially being followed by an enemy submarine. This possibility is the subject of a brilliant piece of dialogue between Vigil\u2019s captain Neil Newsome (Patterson Joseph) and Amy, during which he responds to her claim that the country is not at war with the ominous retort, \u201cThat is an illusion. We\u2019ve always been at war.\u201d This seems like a theme that is going to play a major role throughout the series.<\/p>\n Meanwhile back on land, Amy\u2019s colleague Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) is assisting her with her investigation by looking into Burke\u2019s past. Kirsten was chosen for this mission by Amy specifically due to the fact that they know each other \u2013 and we learn during this episode that they have previously had some kind of relationship together, one that did not end happily but which will come in handy when Kirsten sends coded messages to Amy.<\/p>\n Edge explained that this part of the story was very interesting for him to write, saying, \u201cYou have this need for police colleagues to be able to communicate with each other when they know that every message will be scrutinised for legitimate national security purposes by the Navy, and so their quick solution is to be able to kind of speak to each other using the stock of stories that they have in common as indicators of where Amy might wish to look without the Navy being cued that that is their line of travel.<\/p>\n \u201cSo functionally, that approach gives them a kind of an unusual way to operate. So they\u2019re clearly focused on the job, but actually she is being forced to mine her memory to try and elucidate the things that Kirsten is telling her.\u201d<\/p>\n Presumably, we\u2019ll learn more about Amy and Kirsten\u2019s relationship going forwards, but Kirsten\u2019s main focus in this first episode was investigating anti-Trident activist Jade Antoniak (Lauren Lyle), who by the end of the episode we learn was actually Craig\u2019s girlfriend. This leads Kirsten to discover a key piece of evidence in Craig\u2019s room \u2013 stashed inside a plastic chair is a memory stick that includes several password-protected files and one video of Craig addressing the camera in a very<\/em> intriguing fashion.<\/p>\n \u201cOff the top of my head, there\u2019s 20 different ways you could kill Vigil\u2019s crew single-handed,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd nobody talks about it. Not the skipper, not the top brass \u2013 they only want silence. There\u2019s corruption and fear, there\u2019s men who are being killed and the world still have no idea. See we look like a crew, and that\u2019s all that matters to them. I\u2019ve had some of them come at me, they\u2019ll come at me again, I know that. But they\u2019ve left me dead under two miles of water, well here I am \u2013 I\u2019ve got things to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n And if that wasn\u2019t enough to keep your attention going into the second episode, the opener also ended with the frantic news of a system failure abroad the submarine, and Kirsten running into some trouble with the Navy police. Well, they promised us it was going to be tense\u2026<\/p>\n Series writer Tom Edge breaks down the huge death in the series opener as part of our episode one recap. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3687,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/vigil-episode-1-recap-major-star-killed-off-in-opening-episode.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Series writer Tom Edge breaks down the huge death in the series opener as part of our episode one recap.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Vigil"\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/07\/21886515-high_res-vigil-c32f666.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"bbc-nuclear-submarine-thriller-vigil\"\\"")
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