Can Nathan ever escape his past in ‘The Sister’?

Halloween will be a bit different next Saturday, with trick-or-treating excursions and fancy dress parties the latest annual events curtailed due to the ongoing pandemic.

However, ITV are getting viewers in the spooky mood by premiering this creepy psychological thriller across four nights this week.

The series, originally titled Because the Night and inspired by Neil Cross’s 2009 novel Burial, could turn out to be one of the must-watch dramas of the autumn.

“It’s one of my favourite stories,” says Spooks writer Cross, who is currently busy at work on the film spin-off of his other show Luther, with Idris Elba.

“It’s a tale of psychological suspense, of guilt and ghosts and murder. Oh, and love. Always love.

“Our job is to make viewers want to sleep with the lights on. We’re looking forward to it.”

Actor Russell Tovey (Him & Her, Years and Years, Flesh and Blood) plays Nathan, a well-meaning but directionless lost soul who harbours a terrible secret he’s desperate to keep buried.

After years of struggle, Nathan now has a new life and is devoted to his wife, Holly.

However, his seemingly perfect world is turned upside down when Bob (played by Doctor Foster and Baghdad Central actor Bertie Carvel), an eccentric and shocking face from the past, turns up on his doorstep during one rainy night.

The disheveled Bob breaks some awful news to Nathan which he’s prayed would stay buried and this in turn triggers a series of horrific events and compelling narrative of psychological suspense, dread, love and possible redemption.

So what is the secret? And can Nathan ever escape his past and keep hold of the family he he cares so deeply for?

Tovey, who previously played the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC’s supernatural drama Being Human, said: “The Sister is going to challenge me as an actor more than I’ve ever been challenged before. As a web of lies, that he thought was dead and buried, comes back to haunt Nathan, he sinks deeper and deeper into the horror of the event that happened 10 years ago.”

Alongside Tovey and Carvel, the cast also includes Amrita Acharia (Game of Thrones) as Holly, and Simone Ashley (Sex Education) as her sister Elise, whose mysterious disappearance years before following a party is at the heart of the story.

Bodyguard actress Nina Toussaint-White plays Detective Jacki Hadley, Holly’s stalwart best friend, who was also one of the officers investigating Elise’s disappearance.

At the time, she even interviewed Nathan and Bob as witnesses and is determined to pursue the truth about what happened that fateful night.

In tonight’s opening episode, a knock at the door changes everything for Nathan, and as his life unravels over the next four nights, Bob’s behaviour becomes increasingly unhinged, unpredictable and terrifying.

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