‘Nightsleeper’ Season 2: Colin Morgan, Madeleine Mantock & Christian Cooke Lead Return Of BBC Thriller Drama

EXCLUSIVE: Colin Morgan (The Boy That Never Was), Madeleine Mantock (The Long Song) and Christian Cooke (Frauds) will lead the cast of BBC real-time thriller Nightsleeper Season 2. The trio assume the mantle from Season 1 stars Joe Cole and Ruth Madeley, and will appear alongside the likes of Rupert Penry-Jones (Spooks), Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones) and Sally Lindsay (Cold Call). Normal People maker Element Pictures is producing the BBC show, which is currently filming in Belfast, UK, with support from Northern Ireland Screen. Nick Leather is the writer. BBC iPlayer and BBC One will play the six-part show, which moves the action from the overnight train of Season 2 to the open water, as a Belfast-to-Liverpool passenger ferry becomes the target of a potentially deadly hack-attack. Watch on Deadline With the crew desperately trying to hide the extent of the threat from the passengers, the ferry’s second engineer Johnny (Cooke) has to work with the National Cyber Security Centre’s new technical director, Bo (Morgan) to try and fight back.Morgan stars as Stephen ‘Bo’ Bowen, Mantock plays Beth and Cooke (Frauds, Cemetery Junction) takes the role of Johnny. Rupert Penry-Jones joins the cast as Richard, Ian McElhinney as Charlie and Sally Lindsay as Lisa. Also joining the cast are Alexander Arnold (Yesterday) as Feeny, Lydia Page (The Confessions of Frannie Langton) as Lola, Christine Bottomley (Sherwood) as Tanya, Julie Dray (Crashing) as Ray, Pooky Quesnel (Tip Toe) as Sam, Jonathan Harden (Blue Lights) as Simon, Mickey Mason (Silo) as Damian, Kevin Harvey (This City is Ours) as Tony, Cúán Hosty-Blaney (Say Nothing) as Liam, Eileen O’Higgins (Brooklyn) as Jo, Samuel Edward-Cook (Peaky Blinders) as Connor, Emily Flain (How to Get to Heaven from Belfast) as Eabha, Tareq Al-Jeddal (Animol) as Albie and Sam Hoare (The Capture) as Rusper. Parth Thakerar (Brassic), Jonjo O’Neill (Bad Sisters) and Micah Balfour (EastEnders) reprise their roles as Saj, Hud and Leon from the first season. James Kent and Chris Baugh are directing, with Kate Harwood, Rachel Dargavel, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe and Christopher Aird executive produce for Element, alongside Leather and Kent, with Gaynor Holmes the EP for the BBC. Jonathan Curling is series producer, with Maria Mulhall as producer. Element’s parent, Fremantle, is handling global sales. “It’s so much fun to be embarking on a second Nightsleeper journey on a route I know so well with the Belfast-to-Liverpool ferry as our new box-of-tricks,” added Leather. Element took over production of the show from another Fremantle label, Euston Films, which was shuttered around the time Season 1 launched. The first run was a big seller for distributor Fremantle, going to 176 territories including stateside to BritBox. Harwood, who ran Euston and remains an exec producer, said today: “We’re excited to be filming this sea faring Nightsleeper adventure in Belfast, Titanic town itself, and to be casting off with such a brilliant bunch of actors led by Colin Morgan, Madeleine Mantock and Christian Cooke with superb directors James Kent and Chris Baugh helming. We look forward to taking Nightsleeper fans in the UK and abroad on another thrilling trip.” Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, who commissioned Season 2, said: “We’re thrilled to have Colin, Madeleine and Christian lead this new series of Nightsleeper. Nick has delivered another brilliantly gripping story, and with danger lurking beneath the surface at every turn, viewers are in for a truly nail-biting journey.”