Vigil star addresses shocking death scene in Vigil episode 1: "He’s still got more to give"
The nuclear submarine drama got off to an explosive start with its first episode... **WARNING: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE**
The first episode of new BBC One drama Vigil packed a fair few twists and turns into its runtime – and most of them revolved around Craig Burke, the character played by Martin Compston.
The Line of Duty star was shockingly killed off inside the opening 10 minutes of the series premiere, only to make a surprise reappearance in some video footage just before the credits rolled.
And Compston has teased that one of the things that convinced him to take on the role was that Craig still has "more to give" even from beyond the grave.
Explaining how he enjoyed being the surprise death – a fate that has befallen many of his Line of Duty co-stars in the past – he said, "What I found especially intriguing was that Burke dies and – just when you think you've seen the last of him – it turns out that, no, he's still got more to give and more to say and he’s made it so he hasn't gone down without a fight.
"When he appears back at the end of episode one on the recording, it's a real 'Wow' moment, I think."
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Compston has had lots of practise keeping plot twists secret after six seasons of Line of Duty – and he said he made extra sure not to tell anyone about his character's death before the episode had aired.
"I’ve not told a single soul," he said. "You just can't give these things away – nobody wants a spoiler, and I wouldn't want to kill the surprise for anybody. Even my family and people close to me who knew I wasn't away filming Vigil for very long, I just told them I had a ‘limited’ role."
The rest of the series looks set to investigate the circumstances surrounding Craig's death, and reveal who could have been responsible for his presumed murder, but Compston says he's as much in the dark as anybody else about where the series will go from here.
"It's a total mystery, and actually I don’t want to know in advance," he revealed. "I'm really looking forward to tuning in to watch the rest of Vigil with everyone else.
"It's great to have catch-up, but I do think that ‘event telly’ is still a thing, so I'm excited to watch it live each week and find out who or what killed Burke at the same time as everyone else does."
Want more Vigil content? Find out who sings the Vigil theme song or discover where Vigil is filmed with our location guide.
Vigil continues on BBC One on Monday 30th August at 9pm. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Drama hub for the latest news.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
