‘Edge-of-your-seat’ thriller makes Glasgow look ‘spectacular’ – Martin Compston

A new thriller series shot in Scotland makes Glasgow look “pretty spectacular” amid other productions that portray the city as “gritty”, the leading actor has said.

Martin Compston portrays main character Martyn in Fear – which debuted during the Glasgow Film Festival at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Thursday evening.

Mr Compston, who has starred in a wide range of series and films such as Mayflies, The Wee Man, Line Of Duty and Filth, said Fear breaks the mould in terms of how Glasgow is generally shown in media, despite its dark and tense storyline.

The three-part show, based on a book of the same name by Dirk Kurbjuweit, was shot in the city’s West End, and features a family who have recently moved back to Scotland, having lived in London for a time.

The show is centred on the family aiming for a fresh start, which is quickly brough to a halt by a neighbour with severe mental health issues.

Mr Compston says he is “chuffed to bits” that the show’s debut was held in Glasgow.

He said: “It used to be you’d do these shows and have the premiere down south, but that is changing a bit, you know, and Scotland has just grown and grown.

“So to have the show filmed in the West End, and having the premiere in the town is great – it’s a good feeling.”

While he was unable to disclose too much about the show’s plot, he said: “It’s about a family who come back up to Scotland from London. My character, Martyn, is an architect and he brings his young family to the city.

“They’ve sort of sold everything they had to buy a spectacular house in Glasgow, and they come up here to try and live the dream, they’ve got this beautiful place and they’re starting fresh, close to Martyn’s family.

“And they’ve got a neighbour downstairs who’s not all there, and that just sort of spirals from there.”

He added: “It’s a thriller, but I think it stands on its own.

“It’s still quite scary, with the sort of ‘creepy neighbour’ and all that kind of thing, but it really pushes the boat out on sort of different aspects of it.

“Dare I say, it’s a bit cleverer than your average thriller.”

He described the characters in the show as being complex, nuanced, and often in morally “grey areas”, with the morality of their motives and actions left to the audience to decide.

He said: “He’s fun to play because he’s quite selfish, and so it’s finding all those different shades in him. Being the lead character, you’ve got to take the audience with you, but also, when he’s doing things that make you dislike him.

“So it’s about trying to keep people on side and alienate them at the same time.

“Where the show is great is in these grey areas, because a lot of it is: how far would you go to protect your family?

“And that’s what’s great. It leaves it up to the audience from their point of view, to decide what they would do. I think the performances across the board are fantastic.”

On the city’s portrayal itself, he said it breaks the usual stereotype of Glasgow being an all-round deprived area.

He said: “I hope it reaches a wider audience, but I think Glasgow looks pretty spectacular (in the show).

“It’s good to show off the city. I’ve said this before, but I think we’ve really cornered the market on gritty dramas and urban decay, and there’s nothing wrong with that, because there is elements of that in the city, but there is a beautiful element to the city.”

He added: “I think it’s a proper edge-of-your-seat thriller and it takes some great twists, so I think it’s an exciting watch.”

Finally, Mr Compston said that while there are currently no plans for another season of the critically acclaimed show Line Of Duty, he hopes that eventually the cast and crew will “get back together”, and spoke of some of his other upcoming projects.

He said: “I’ve got a Channel 4 documentary coming out I think over the summer about life in Vegas when I’m over there.

“And I’ve just started my new ITV thriller yesterday (February 26) called Red Eye.

“It’s the second series of that – the first series was a massive hit, so there’s a bit of pressure coming in, taking over the lead, making sure we deliver, but it’s already a winning team – everybody’s been really welcoming, so I’m delighted, it’s been a good couple of years.”

Justin Chadwick, director of Fear, said: “I think as a thriller, that’s got really three-dimensional characters.

“I think we’ve got something that’s reinvented the usual ‘monster in the basement’ who comes and terrorises the family.

“The film deals with PTSD and psychological terror but it’s also truthful and set with characters that come from a real place, and out of Covid the world changed and this feels like a post-Covid bit of TV.”