The Capture (TV series)


The Capture is a British mystery crime-drama series created, written and directed by Ben Chanan, and starring Holliday Grainger, Callum Turner, Laura Haddock, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter, and Ron Perlman. Set in present-day London, Grainger stars as Detective Inspector Rachel Carey, who is assigned to arrest and charge United Kingdom Special Forces Lance Corporal Shaun Emery, who is looking to clear his name of a horrific crime supposedly captured by CCTV.
The series premiered on BBC One on 3 September 2019, and received positive reviews from critics and audiences. It was announced in June 2020 that a second series had been commissioned.

Premise

After being acquitted of a war crime in Afghanistan, former United Kingdom Special Forces Lance Corporal Shaun Emery finds himself accused of the kidnapping and murder of his barrister Hannah Roberts, backed by damning CCTV evidence. Whilst Emery works to clear his name, fast-tracked Detective Inspector Rachel Carey of Homicide and Serious Crime Command begins to uncover a complex conspiracy surrounding Emery, calling into question the validity of the footage.

Production

Filming locations

Production filmed interior scenes at Canterbury Prison, Kent, England doubling as HMP Gladstone, London for episode one. Lead character Sean Emery is released from prison wearing a soldier's uniform. He later is rearrested and returns to the prison.
Other interior scenes were filmed at the Printworks venue in Rotherhithe, and The Shard.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

The series was reviewed positively by critics; it currently holds a 95% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
The Telegraph awarded the episode four stars, labelling the series as "riveting", and The Independent also awarded it four stars, designating it an "intriguing, but rather flawed, sort of Big Brother thriller set in our contemporary world of digital snooping". In his review in The Times James Jackson referred to the drama as a "neatly structured thriller... clearly out to interrogate surveillance culture", also awarding four stars. The Guardian was less enthusiastic, concluding it to be a "twisty if lacklustre drama", giving the opening episode only three stars out of five.
Reviews improved over the course of the series, and the finale was highly praised by critics, with many drawing positive comparisons with the BBC's similar series Bodyguard which was broadcast around the same time the previous year. The Telegraph described it as a "highly satisfying series finale", whilst The Times critic James Jackson referred to the series as 'the thinking man's' Bodyguard:
Sarah Hughes echoed these sentiments in her review of the finale in The Guardian, commenting that "if there were any justice, everyone would be talking about The Capture right now". She heralded the show as "nuanced and complex" and "one of the most cleverly plotted dramas of recent years", and the final episode as "a refreshingly grownup hour of television".
The Capture was the most requested new show in 2019 on BBC iPlayer, with over 20 million requests for series 1. It was also the eighth most requested series overall in 2019.
For his performance, Callum Turner received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.