Requiem will scare you silly (Picture: BBC)

Friday nights are about to get that bit spookier with the arrival of BBC One’s new supernatural thriller Requiem.

And it’s fair to say that this could be one of the scariest – if not the scariest – show that we’ve seen gracing the channel in a long while.

Because this story of a cellist who finds herself caught up in a ghostly tale linked back to her own mother and a weird, creepy house in remote Wales packs a fair punch right from the off, with two grim deaths in the first ten minutes and a whole lot of twists and turns thereafter.

Requiem is about to give BBC viewers a fright (Picture: Todd Antony)

So just what can you expect from Requiem – and should you be nabbing yourself a big sofa cushion to hide behind?




Here’s what you need to know…

What’s Requiem about then?

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The series focuses on Matilda ‘Tilly’ Gray (Star Trek’s Lydia Wilson), a successful cellist who is about to embark on a concert tour of New York – except those carefully laid plans are put on hold after witnessing her mother Janice (Joanna Scanlon)’s shocking suicide just moments before she is due to go on stage.

As if that’s not harrowing enough it comes just after the mysterious death of Ewan Dean, a landowner in a small Welsh village – the same place where a toddler, Carys Howell, mysterious went missing 23 years previously. And when the grief-stricken Matilda finds a box of items on her mum’s bed relating to the child’s disappearance, the mystery deepens still further – was Janice somehow linked to the goings-on there?

Creepy graveyard? Check (Picture: Simon Ridgway)

All of this leads her – with best friend Hal (Joel Fry) in tow to head to the village and find out whether her mum’s violent death could somehow be related to the case. They arrive on the day of Ewan’s funeral, and meet his nephew Nick who invites them to stay at his estate. And then things start getting weird. Really weird. Not that we’re spoiling any of that of course.

Yes but will I be scared?

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Yup, this is pretty spooky stuff – and just because you know what becomes of Tilly’s mum doesn’t make it any easier to watch when it happens. And those scary moments just keep on coming, to the extent where even an unopened door at the end of a shadowy corridor suddenly becomes really really menacing, thanks to the sense of dread and mystery that surrounds it all. Oh and there are lots of twists. One fairly major one in the first episode in fact – so that’ll keep you watching for sure.

Where have I see the cast before?

Lydia Wilson gets throughly spooked out as cellist Matilda (Picture: BBC)

Lydia Wilson – who plays Tilly – donned a shedload of prosthetics to play Kalara the alien in 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond, and also starred as Mimi Morton in Ripper Street, as well as appearing in the likes of Never Let Me Go and Misfits. Meanwhile Joanna Scanlon, who plays Janice, is best known for her roles in The Thick Of It and satirical small screen hit Getting On – which she also co-wrote alongside Jo Brand and Vicki Pepperdine.

Elsewhere, Joel Fry (Hal) will be familiar to you as Game Of Thrones’ Hizdahr zo Loraq (he appeared in seasons four and five) – while Claire Rushbrook, who stars as Rose Morgan (the mother of missing girl Carys Howell) was most recently seen in the Channel 4 drama Kiri. Plus you might just recognise Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle and another Game of Thrones alumnus, Tara Fitzgerald (she played Selyse Baratheon) in the cast. Some pretty impressive credentials there then.

Sounds good. So when can I see it?

Requiem is kicking off on Friday night (Picture: Adrian Rogers)

Well here’s the thing. The first episode airs on BBC One on Friday night at 9pm – but if you can’t wait to find out what happens next, the good news is the entire series is being released on iPlayer straight afterwards. So sit back and prepare to binge, folks…

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