Is BBC's Nightsleeper based on a true story? Thriller dubbed the 'new' Bodyguard begins

There's a new thriller to get hooked on and the form of Nightsleeper, which is launched to millions of viewers and a lot of opinions last weekend and continues on Sunday night.

When it comes to Sunday night dramas to get everyone on the edge of their seats, the BBC know what they're doing, with Line of Duty, Vigil and Bodyguard just a few of the huge hits from the last decade. And now that Sherwood is finished, people will be looking for a fresh show to end their weekends on a night.

Well that is where Nightsleeper comes in, as the series, about the attempted hacking of a Glasgow to London sleeper train, and a government agency’s attempt to intervene, made its debut on Sunday, September 15.

READ MORE:How many episodes of Nightsleeper on BBC? Joe Cole leads cast of new thriller

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A BBC teaser ahead of its launch read: "The overall question is whether two people who have never met, one on the train and one not, can establish enough of a bond and work together to save the lives of the passengers on board and stop the train before it reaches what might quite literally be its final destination."

Is BBC's Nightsleeper based on a true story?

No, unlike other dramas for the channel, like The Moorside and The Reckoning, six parter Nightsleeper, set in real time, is not based on real life events and is the work of BAFTA-winning writer Nick Leather, with the Nightsleeper cast led by Peaky Blinders star Joe Cole.

Talking about how he came up with idea for the much hyped thriller, Nick said: "I wanted to come up with something that was big and potentially buzzy, fun and fast, full of swerves and stunts (I’d never really done anything with stunts before). So, I had that thought in my head, but I didn’t have a story. That was the only thing that I was lacking, apart from that I was almost there! So, I started by asking a series of ‘What if?’ questions to come up with something quite high-concept."

He added: "I wanted it to be an idea that would put ordinary people into an extraordinary situation. The idea that I got to was “What if you were sat on the train one day and the doors closed, and it moved off without the driver? And it was potentially being driven by someone from their bedroom or from another country and you were at their mercy.”