Element Pictures to take over production from shuttered label Euston

Fremantle label Element Pictures is to take over the production of BBC1 drama Nightsleeper for its recommissioned second series.

The first series of the Nick Leather thriller was produced by Fremantle stablemate Euston Films, which shuttered in 2024 as the result of a tough economic climate.

Nightsleeper was its final drama, exec produced by managing director Kate Harwood, who jumped to Element Pictures shortly after her label closed its doors. She will once again serve as exec producer.

Series one followed a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London, with strangers on board forced to work together to survive. It became the BBC’s biggest new drama launch of 2024, with episode one reaching 3.3m viewers overnight, rising to 8.5m viewers after 28 days.

For the 6 x 60-minute second series, the action will take place aboard a ship travelling across the Irish Sea.

Leather said: “The passengers and crew on tonight’s Belfast to Liverpool passenger ferry are about to experience six hours of non-stop thrills and spills, secrets and lies, triumphs and tragedies. None of them are quite as they seem. Nothing in their lives will ever be the same again. Not all of them will make it to the other side.”

Harwood said: “Audiences embraced Nightsleeper in such a huge way, and we’re incredibly excited to return with a bold new story.

“Nick has once again created a brilliantly tense thriller packed with new characters, twists, emotion and edge-of-your-seat drama.”

The series was ordered by BBC drama director Lindsay Salt. It will be made with support from Northern Ireland Screen. The directors are James Kent and Chris Baugh, the exec producers are Harwood, Rachel Dargavel, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe and Chris Aird, alongside Leather, James Kent, and Gaynor Holmes for the BBC. The series producer is Jonathan Curling, with Maria Mulhall as producer.

Salt said: “Series one of Nightsleeper was a breakout hit, thundering across the UK to reach millions of viewers. Series two brilliantly builds on everything that made the first so irresistible, and we could not be happier to be working with Nick, Kate and the team.”

Fremantle will handle international distribution and filming will take place in Belfast later this year.