Vigil (2021)

Vigil is a British police procedural drama television series created by Tom Edge and produced by World Productions. The series premiered on BBC One on 29 August 2021. The first series comprises 6 episodes and stars Suranne Jones, Rose Leslie, Shaun Evans, Paterson Joseph, Gary Lewis and Martin Compston, and is set in Scotland and in the ocean adjacent to Scotland, primarily onboard HMS Vigil, a ballistic missile submarine of the Royal Navy.

The second series, again with 6 episodes, premiered on 10 December 2023. It replaces the nautical setting of the first series with a land-based drama that focuses on prototype drone technology. Jones, Leslie and Lewis reprise their roles with Dougray Scott and Romola Garai joining the main cast.

In February 2025, it was renewed for a third series, also of 6 episodes, to be set in an Arctic research station on Svalbard. Filming began in September 2025, and the series premiered on 30 August 2026.

Plot

Series 1

Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva of Police Scotland is sent to HMS Vigil, a nuclear-powered Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarine, to investigate a death on board, which takes place shortly after the mysterious disappearance of a Scottish fishing trawler. Her investigations, and those of her colleagues ashore, bring the police into conflict with the Royal Navy and MI5, the British Security Service.

The loss of the trawler Mhairi Finnea in the series bears similarities to the sinking of the FV Antares by Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine HMS Trenchant in the Firth of Clyde in 1990. Families of the Antares's crew expressed upset at scenes of the Mhairi Finnea foundering; however, the BBC denied that the drama was inspired by or based on a specific real-life event.

Series 2

When a Royal Air Force prototype combat drone is compromised and kills several soldiers during a joint demonstration in Scotland, Silva's team are tasked with finding the perpetrator. She travels to joint Al-Shawka Air Base in the Kingdom of Wudyan, a controversial ally in the Persian Gulf, and discovers a wider conspiracy intertwined with the current regime's collaboration with the British government and private enterprise on drone development.

Series 3

The third series is set at an Arctic research station in Svalbard where Silva and Longacre investigate the death of a British special forces officer involved in a covert mission. As well as fight for control of Arctic resources as the ice melts, against the backdrop of strained relations between Russia and the west following its Russo-Ukrainian war and break up the NATO alliance.

Cast and characters

Main

Suranne Jones as Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva

Rose Leslie as Detective Sergeant/Inspector Kirsten Longacre

Gary Lewis as Detective Superintendent/Chief Superintendent Colin Robertson

Orla Russell as Poppy Torrens, Silva's adopted daughter from a previous relationship

Recurring

Series 1

Shaun Evans as Warrant Officer Class One Elliot Glover, the coxswain of HMS Vigil

Martin Compston as Chief Petty Officer Craig Burke, a sonar mapping expert on HMS Vigil

Paterson Joseph as Commander Neil Newsome, the Captain of HMS Vigil

Adam James as Lieutenant Commander Mark Prentice, the Executive Officer of HMS Vigil

Lauren Lyle as Jade Antoniak, a peace activist

Therese Bradley as Laura Michaels, an MI5 officer

Parth Thakerar as Jay Kohli, an MI5 officer

Stephen Dillane as Rear Admiral Shaw, Head of the Royal Navy Submarine Service

Lolita Chakrabarti as Lieutenant Commander Erin Branning, Shaw's aide

Dan Li as Lieutenant Commander Hennessy, the Weapons Engineer Officer on HMS Vigil

Lorne MacFadyen as Chief Petty Officer Matthew Doward, a sonar mapping expert transferred from HMS Virtue

Connor Swindells as Lieutenant Simon Hadlow, an engineering officer on HMS Vigil

Lois Chimimba as Chief Petty Officer Tara Kierly, a sonar mapping expert of HMS Vigil

Daniel Portman as Chief Petty Officer Gary Walsh, an engineer on HMS Vigil

Anjli Mohindra as Surgeon Lieutenant Tiffany Docherty, the medical officer on HMS Vigil

Anita Vettesse as Petty Officer Jackie Hamilton, chef on HMS Vigil

Reuben Joseph as Detective Sergeant Porter

Cal MacAninch as Ben Oakley, peace activist

Tom Gill as Petty Officer Adams

Series 2

Dougray Scott as Air Vice Marshal Marcus Grainger, a senior officer in charge of the R-PAS drone project

Romola Garai as Acting Squadron Leader Eliza Russell, interim leader of British forces stationed at Al-Shawka Air Base

Chris Jenks as Flight Lieutenant Callum Barker, a drone pilot stationed in Wudyan

Anders Hayward as Flying Officer Colin Dixon, a drone pilot stationed in Dundair

Shannon Hayes as Flight Lieutenant Nicole Lawson, a drone pilot stationed in Wudyan

David Elliot as Ross Sutherland, a disturbed ex-soldier

Oscar Salem as Captain Sattam Abdul "Sam" Kader, a Royal Wudyani Air Force drone pilot

Nebras Jamali as Colonel Ali Bilali, commander of Al-Shawka Air Base in Wudyan

Amir El-Masry as Daniel Ramsey, an MI5 officer

Noof Ousellam as Paul Townsend, Silva and Longacre's junior police colleague

Steven Elder as Derek McCabe, Senior Vice President of Alban-X, the Scottish manufacturer of R-PAS drones

Jonathan Ajayi as Wes Harper, an American citizen employed as chief software engineer at Al-Shawka Air Base

Alastair MacKenzie as Wing Commander Anthony Chapman, former leader of British forces stationed at Al-Shawka Air Base

Hiba Medina as Sabiha Chapman, Anthony's daughter

Dominic Mafham as Sir Ian Downing, Ramsay's superior in MI5

Tommy Sim'aan as Firas Zaman, a Wudyani journalist and dissident living in Scotland

Khalid Laith Nicole as Abdullah Ghazali, leader of Jabhat Al-huriyya

Kamal Mustaffai as Mutaz, one of Ghazali's henchmen

Series 3

Jeppe Beck Laursen as Henrik Becken, the Governor of Svalbard and local Chief of Police

Naomi Yang as Shen Jia, a Chinese microbiologist working on Svalbard

Tornike Gogrichiani as Colonel Fyodor Zamorin, a Russian Police official sent to Svalbard

Steven Miller as Sergeant Mark Cunningham, a Royal Navy Special Boat Service soldier

Benjamin Wainwright as Captain Oli Pickford, leader of the Royal Navy Special Boat Service team on Svalbard

Danusia Samal as Jasmin Kelly, an MI5 official working with Downing

Eric Godon as Yakov Korotayev, the mayor of Baltegrad, a Russian town and enclave in Svalbard

Amy Manson as Lorna McCallister, a geologist on Svalbard

Steven Cree as Gordon Laity, the Minister of State for Energy and Green Transition

Derek Riddell as Professor Vincent Mair, an environmental scientist and adviser to the Department of Energy

Episodes

Series 1 (2021)

Series 2 (2023)

Series 3 (2026)

Production

In a 2021 interview, writer Tom Edge was approached by development producer George Aza-Selinger to develop a submarine project for television. It was inspired by the UK's Continuous At-Sea Deterrent (CASD) and the life of its submarine crews. The show was filmed and primarily set in Scotland. Production designer Tom Sayer created elaborate studio sets to represent the interior of the submarine.

In March 2022, Vigil was renewed for a second series, which premiered on 10 December 2023. Filming for series 2 took place during spring 2023, across Scotland, in locations including Glasgow, Coatbridge, Motherwell, Cumbernauld, Luss, Lanark, Blantyre and North Ayrshire. Scenes were filmed in Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco to portray the country of Wudyan.

In February 2025, Vigil was renewed for a third series. Filming of Series 3 began in Svalbard in September 2025, featuring a majority new cast.

Music

The programme's theme music is the song "Fuel to Fire" from the 2013 album Aventine by Danish singer, songwriter and musician Agnes Obel. Other music included in the series is composed by Afterhere (Berenice Scott and Glenn Gregory). Episode 4 of Series 1 includes the song "Anchor" by Welsh singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Novo Amor, released as a single in 2015 and included on his 2017 EP Bathing Beach.

Broadcast

Series 1 premiered on BBC One on 29 August 2021.

Reception

Ratings

Series 1 Episode 1 attracted an audience of 10.2 million viewers across its first seven days, making Vigil the BBC's most watched new drama of the year.

Series 1

The first series received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the writing, pace, acting, visual style, set design, tone, and atmosphere, but was criticised for the dialogue, plot, and inaccuracies. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first series an 85% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.6/10, based on 20 reviews. The critical consensus reads, "Vigil is ludicrous just as often as it is suspenseful, but a committed cast and pulpy pace make it worth diving in". On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on five reviews.

Lucy Mangan of The Guardian found the first episode intriguing, awarding it five out of five and describing it as "solid, old-fashioned entertainment". The Independent gave the first episode four out of five, praising the cast and Edge's writing. In a four-starred review for London's Evening Standard, Katie Rosseinsky said: "Even scenes set in the depths of the sub are visually striking, lit up in reds and blues. Add in some jump scares, a handful of near-catastrophes and a couple of cliffhangers and you have all the makings of a taut mystery with intriguingly murky depths. Sunday nights are stressful again – I wouldn’t have it any other way." In a five-starred review, Empire magazine described Vigil as "[a] relentless conspiracy drama bursting with performers who know how to keep their cards close to their chests. British TV doesn’t get more thrilling than this." Hugo Rifkind in The Times described "[s]etting a whodunnit on a submarine" as "a masterstroke". Giving the programme four stars, Suzy Feay of the Financial Times said that "The submarine setting has the welcome effect of pressure-cooking some fairly standard ingredients into a tasty concoction".

Other reviewers were less complimentary, citing the unrealistic sets and other technical inaccuracies, the implausibility of elements of the plot, and its political bias. James Delingpole in The Spectator described it as "amateurish and implausible", noting that "the uniforms are wrong; the ceilings are too high and the sub generally far too spacious" and criticised "the hackneyed dialogue, the implausible plotting and the box-ticking". Anita Singh in The Telegraph described the series as "so bad it could be Russian propaganda", and her colleague Ed Power noted that "the story was nonsense" and that "the premise was wasted". The Telegraph also reported that the naval advisor working on the series was an SNP councillor and anti-nuclear campaigner, leading to accusations of bias. Carol Midgley in The Times said that "this subpar ocean drama made my heart sink", and described it as "stultifying".

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said the series was "effective" in the beginning but more and more became like an "unnecessary under-water version of Line of Duty".

Series 2

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the second series a 58% approval rating, based on 12 reviews. The critic consensus read, "Taking Vigil out of its original submarine relieves the cabin pressure but also much of the suspense, although Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie's rapport still provides intrigue." Jack Seale of The Guardian awarded it four out of five, describing a "pacy, extremely good crime drama tackling murder on a military base" that was full of "political truth bombs". He also praised Jones's performance. Rebecca Cook of Digital Spy regarded the series as inferior to the first, because it lacked the same intrigue and settled "for something which feels far more ripped from the headlines". Cook however praised the second series for exploring the romantic human drama between Jones and Leslie.

Paul Stacey of the Irish Independent gave the series a critical review, describing it as a "daft and implausible cop thriller" with an "unlikeable lead". Stacey criticised Jones's performance as Silva as "drab... with little colour or depth". GQ pointed out serious flaws in the realism of the drones, but praised the imaginative way that the programme represented multiple drone technologies in one rather fantastical concept for dramatic effect.

Accolades

International distribution

Peacock acquired the show and the first series was released in the United States on 19 December 2021. The second series was released on Peacock on 15 February 2024.

See also

Vanguard-class submarine

Women on submarines

References

External links

Vigil at BBC Online

Vigil at IMDb

Vigil at epguides.com