DCI Carey is kidnapped in The Capture finale

If you didn’t watch the first series of The Capture before starting the current second season, don’t feel too bad. Paapa Essiedu didn’t either and he’s in it.

The actor, who has previously starred in I May Destroy You and Gangs of London, confesses: “Ben Shannon, our amazing showrunner, emailed me telling me a bit about the character and about season two – I hadn’t actually watched season one at this point.

“In fact, I didn’t actually watch season one until we were halfway through the shoot. I remember watching it and being like, ‘Thank God, it’s really good’.”

In Essiedu’s defence, the first series of The Capture did air way back in 2019, which given the pandemic now seems like a lifetime ago.

Luckily, the current run has no doubt inspired many other people who missed out the first time around to check it out.

If you’re not one of them, it followed DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) as she dealt with the case of a soldier who was acquitted of war crimes only to then be accused of murdering his barrister.

He was seemingly caught on camera committing the crime, but was seeing really believing?

The second run has involved an equally compelling case that again raises questions about just how much we can trust what is front of our eyes.

The recently promoted Carey has been investigating the murder of computer scientist Eddison Yao, only this time, the killer has been erased from the CCTV.

Attention turned to Security Minister Isaac Turner (Essiedu), who had been working with Yao on a project to introduce Chinese facial recognition software to the UK.

Turner was uneasy about the idea due to security concerns, which made it all the more alarming when a deep fake of him turned up, seemingly endorsing the deal.

Now, in the final episode of the run, Carey is kidnapped, and discovers that her instincts have been proven right – but sadly, she can’t really pat herself on the back for a detective job well done, as all that means is that she is in more danger than ever.

Meanwhile, Turner pursues his own agenda.

It’s enough to make some people question whether technology has gone too far, but Essiedu admits that while he shares our concerns, it may not make much difference to his daily life.

While he says that “I used to have one of those plasters on your laptop webcam, just in case like Steve Jobs cared”, he now has been known to accept automated password suggestions.

He says: “Every single time I’m like, ‘I really should come up with my own password and just write it down’.

But I can’t be bothered to do that.

“And so we’re kind of worldly enslaved to technology in a way that is comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. So, I twitch as much as the next person, but I feel as reliant on it as the next person as well.”