The 999 call from hell: An emergency call handler is drawn into a life-or-death situation in new BBC1 thriller The Control Room
- BBC1 thriller The Control Room centres on a 999 phone call that goes wrong
- A call handler finds himself pulled into the emergency and must find a way out
- Writer Nick Leather recalls a distressing 999 call when his daughter was a baby
When writer Nick Leather’s daughter was a baby, she was so sick once he had to make the phone call every parent dreads – to 999.
‘Her eyes were half-open and we couldn’t wake her up. It was that terrible thing where you start panicking, so we rang for help,’ he recalls.
‘I’d never actually called 999 before – I’d only ever seen it on the TV. So we rang up, they called an ambulance for us and by lunchtime she was absolutely fine.’
Nick’s new high-octane and utterly original BBC1 thriller The Control Room is an unexpected result of that phone call.
Nick Leather’s new high-octane and utterly original BBC1 thriller The Control Room is an unexpected result of a phone call to 999. It stars Iain de Caestecker and Joanna Vanderham
‘When I sat down to write a script set in an unusual place, I thought back to that conversation I’d had on the phone, how you call that number only because you’re desperate,’ he says.
‘It’s such an intense relationship with someone you don’t know, someone you’ve never spoken to before and someone you’re probably never going to speak to again. Yet you’re so dependent on them – the person you’re reaching out to is an everyday hero.’
The Control Room centres on two quite ordinary people who find themselves in an extraordinary situation. Scottish actor Iain de Caestecker, best known for starring in hit superhero series Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., returned to his homeland to play Gabe, a rookie emergency call handler for the Strathclyde Ambulance Service.
When we first meet him he’s helping to calm down his first expectant father whose wife is giving birth, but then comes the phone call that will change his life.
A woman is on the phone, terrified that she might have murdered someone, and then she recognises Gabe’s voice. With Gabe under pressure to work out who she is, he makes a decision that threatens to have devastating consequences.
Very quickly, circumstances move beyond his control and he finds himself teaming up with his childhood friend Sam (played by Joanna Vanderham), trying to cover up a serious crime from detectives.
Meanwhile he’s still working in the control room, which often involves dealing with the police.
‘I became fascinated with the idea, what if an emergency call handler was pulled into the emergency,’ says Nick.
‘What if the professional situation suddenly became a personal one. I love those ambulance series on TV, but I wondered about what would happen if it became a personal story.
Gabe (Iain De Caestecker) and Leigh (Taj Atwal). The Control Room centres on two quite ordinary people who find themselves in an extraordinary situation
‘The other aspect I really wanted to think about was that although I love watching thrillers, I think often the hero loves it a bit too much. I’m not an alpha male at all, and if I was pulled into a thriller situation, it would be my worst nightmare.
‘So I thought my hero should be sort of like someone who wants to be in a romcom but finds himself in a terrifying adventure.’
To understand what life is like for people in real emergency control rooms, Nick spoke to three call handlers to hear their stories and underwent some online training.
‘It was interesting to learn what they’re hearing in their ear, what they’re seeing on their screen, how much information they have and how accurate the computer system is. It can find your postcode within seconds from your phone and they can see you on a map on the screen,’ he says.
One of the elements of the story that came out of his research was the idea that call handlers often have to give advice when someone’s giving birth. ‘I was told it’s a rite of passage for all call handlers when they have a baby named after them,’ he laughs.
‘This is why they’re everyday heroes – in our most desperate moments, they are the people we call begging, “Please solve my problem, please make things better.”
‘Murder, someone being hurt or hurting someone else is horrific, but sadly it’s a common situation that all call handlers have to deal with, although our story is entirely fictional.’
The control room scenes were filmed in a former police control room just outside Glasgow, and Iain spent several shifts in an ambulance control room to learn how it all works.
‘They really are the invisible side of the emergency services,’ he says.
‘But while we have a responsibility to make the series authentic, we were also up against the parameters of a television show. Some real-life calls might have taken up a whole episode, but hopefully we show what an amazing job these people do.’
He says he was immediately gripped by the story from the moment he picked up the script. ‘While researching being a call handler is one thing, attempting to put yourself in the shoes of someone whose life is running completely out of control is something else,’ he says.
‘From the first scene there’s this big twist that propels you and then the action keeps ramping up.
‘When I read the script, my heart was really racing. The story doesn’t stop, it’s relentless with no time to breathe.
‘The interesting thing is that Gabe is a pretty normal person but he gets dragged into this situation. He’s completely out of his comfort zone and that almost heightens his bravery.
‘There are certain things that happen and you think, ‘What would you do, realistically?’ Personally, I think I’d be having a panic attack.’
- The Control Room begins on Sunday at 9pm on BBC1.
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