Paapa Essiedu confesses to not watching The Capture before joining hit CCTV thriller for season two-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Paapa was so impressed with the scripts he didn’t feel compelled to catch up on the series (Picture: BBC/Heyday Films/NBC Universal/Getty)

Paapa Essiedu may be joining the cast of tense BBC drama The Capture, but he didn’t exactly know what he was getting himself in for.

The I May Destroy You actor plays politician Isaac Turner in the second instalment of the murder investigation series, which centres on fudged CCTV footage and deepfakes.

However, while the first season won legions of fans and was widely praised by critics, it apparently bypassed the 32-year-old Londoner.

Ahead of the latest series, which will air on the BBC next Sunday, Paapa revealed he took on the job without ever having seen the show, which is created and written by The Missing director Ben Chanan.

It was until halfway through filming the gripping drama that the former Royal Shakespeare Company actor decided to give it a go.

‘I remember watching it being like, “Thank god it’s really good,” he told an audience at a recent screening while laughing.

But Paapa said he didn’t need to watch The Capture, which also stars Holliday Grainger and Ron Perlman, to be convinced to sign up.

‘The scripts speak for themselves. I think for a script alone to sell a project to you, it must be pretty good,’ he explained.

‘Ben’s [Chanan] got a generational talent for dialogue and for size and ambition and for creative tension.’

The first season, which premiered in 2019, centered on soldier Shawn Emery (Callum Turner), who was pictured on CCTV assaulting his barrister Hannah Roberts (Laura Haddock) in a brutal attack.

Paapa plays a politician who finds himself in a spot of bother (Picture: Getty Images)

But things were not as they seemed, with principled detective Rachel Carey (Holliday) setting about uncovering the truth of the horrific incident, which later saw Hannah found dead.

Her investigation leads to the discovery of covert and controversial government operation, Correction, which sees a team of tech nerds fake CCTV of convicted terrorists committing crimes that never happened in order to get them off the streets.

Holliday returns to The Capture (Picture: BBC/Heyday/NBC Universal)

When a horrified activist group led by lawyer Hannah learns about Correction, they become determined to make it public, and set up Shawn in order to prove it exists. 

But the secret service agents will do anything to keep it out of the headlines and to foil the plot they kill Hannah, and force Shawn, by faking footage of him harming his daughter, into pleading guilty to her murder.

Ron is a fan favourite (Picture: BBC/Heyday Films/NBC Universal)

While the details of season two are being kept under wraps, we do know, thanks to the first-look trailer, CCTV footage will play a central role again.

In the clip, viewers learn a man has been assassinated in his apartment, but confusingly, the security cameras show nothing but an ominous shadow.

The Capture returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday August, 28.

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