Director: Nick Leather
A sleeper train hurtling through the night, a government team scrambling to catch up, and two strangers who may be the only ones who can stop what's coming — Nightsleeper is a 2024 British thriller built entirely around a single runaway journey.
What is Nightsleeper about?
The Heart of Britain overnight service leaves Glasgow bound for London carrying an ordinary mix of commuters and travelers, unaware that its systems have already been compromised. As the train's controls slip out of human hands and its speed climbs past anything safe, a national crisis-response unit races to figure out who is responsible and how to regain control before the line runs out. Onboard, a passenger with no special training becomes the unlikely link between the carriages and the control room, working against the clock alongside an operator she has never met in person. Each carriage holds its own small dramas — passengers who don't know each other forced into sudden, tense cooperation — while outside, investigators trace the plot back through layers of sabotage. The series compresses its entire story into the length of one journey, tightening the pressure scene by scene as the destination approaches.
Cast & crew
Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole lead as the two central figures working the crisis from opposite ends, with Alex Ferns, Sharon Small, James Cosmo, David Threlfall, Daniel Cahill and Lois Chimimba rounding out the passengers and officials caught up in the unfolding emergency.
Context & significance
Written by Nick Leather, the series was shot largely aboard a purpose-built train set to keep the sense of claustrophobic motion constant, and its real-time structure means very little of the story happens anywhere but the carriages and the control room monitoring them.
Where & how to watch
Nightsleeper is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, presented through a Farsi interface designed for the Iranian diaspora. Browsing the page costs nothing; streaming the episodes requires a K-Time account login.