The control tower at tunnel HQ - an unlikely 'star' of a murder mystery

by business editor Trevor Sturgess

The Channel Tunnel is to star in a 10-part television murder thriller.

The Anglo-French production by Sky Atlantic and broadcaster CANAL+ is
called, naturally, The Tunnel.

A film crew has been working inside the service tunnel, and also used Discovery Park, the former Pfizer site at Sandwich, as a set for some of the action.

The series will boost Kent's burgeoning reputation for good film locations following on the success of Les Miserables and Great Expectations which both used Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Ben Richards, who wrote Spooks, Outcasts and Party Animals, heads up the
writing team behind the series, which is set mainly in Folkestone and Calais.

It is inspired by hit Scandinavian murder drama The Bridge, which involved a
murder victim lying on a bridge exactly on the Danish-Swedish border and
involving two police forces. The Tunnel is set against the backdrop of
Europe in crisis.

When a prominent French politician is found dead on the border between the
UK and France, detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann are sent to
investigate on behalf of their respective countries.

On its website, Sky says the case “takes a surreal turn when a shocking
discovery is made at the crime scene, forcing the French and British police
into an uneasy partnership.

As the serial killer uses ever more elaborateand ingenious methods to highlight the moral bankruptcy of modern society, Karl and Elise are drawn deeper into his increasingly personal agenda.”

The series stars Stephen Dillane and French actress Clémence Poésy in an
Anglo-French cast.

Dillane starred in Sky Atlantic’s “Game of Thrones,” while Poésy appeared
in “Birdsong.”

Joining them are Joseph Mawle, who will play social worker Stephen Beaumont, and Tom Bateman as UK journalist Danny Hillier, who unintentionally becomes caught in the serial killer’s web.

Ashes To Ashes’ Keeley Hawes and Liz Smith of The Royle Family) join them from episode two.

Other cast members include Tobi Bakare, Jeanne Balibar, Thibault de
Montalembert, Mathieu Carrièrre, Angel Coulby, Jack Lowden will also star.

The series is due to be broadcast later this year.