This spooky thriller from the creator of 'Derry Girls' is well worth your time
Now that we've binged our way through I May Destroy You and Normal People, there is a gaping chasm in our lives that badly needs filling.
Well, good news: Here to plug the ever-growing void is a new drama from the creator of Derry Girls, Lisa McGee, and her husband Tobias Beer. The Deceived is a spooky, psychological thriller that will probably make you want to sleep with the lights on. Oh, and just in case you weren't already hooked, Normal People actor Paul Mescal stars as Sean, a volunteer firefighter, alongside Game of Thrones star Ian McElhinney as Hugh Callaghan.
The four part Channel 5 drama begins in Cambridge, but swiftly moves across the Irish sea to County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.
The drama centres around Cambridge professor Dr. Michael Callaghan (Emmett J Scanlan) and his extra-marital affair with university student Ophelia (Emily Reid). When Michael does a moonlight flit, and vanishes without a trace, Ophelia vows to get the bottom of his disappearance. She visits Michael's father Hugh who informs her that Michael is back in Ireland, and she steals an envelope with his address at Knockdara in Donegal. Nothing could possibly prepare her for what awaits her there, however.
When she rocks up in Knockdara, she wanders straight into the aftermath of a tragedy. Roisin, Michael's wife and a famous novelist (Catherine Walker), has died in a house fire. And if things weren't already complicated enough, Ophelia then informs Michael that she's pregnant.
As they adjust to living together in a partially burned-down house (yes, the house where his wife perished!), the vibe is deeply reminiscent of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Things go bump in the night, or rather "knock-knock-knock" in the night. And was that Roisin's ghost in the garden? A psychic even shows up at the house and has an alarming vision.
Needless to say, things are very stressful and you'll find yourself teetering on the edge of your seat throughout. If you're a scaredy cat like me, you'll find yourself jumping out of your skin at the faintest noise in your home for days after watching.
All is not as is seems, of course. More revelations about Michael come to the fore, and things come to a cataclysmic conclusion, with one person in particular getting their comeuppance. You'll likely spend episodes three and four with your chin firmly on your chest. Unless, of course, you had your suspicions about a few characters from the get-go.
Prepare for a dramatic ending, and a fair few twists, turns, and scary-as-hell surprises.
You can catch up on all four episodes of The Deceived on My5 in the UK and Stan in Australia. No date has been confirmed yet for the U.S., but we'll update this article if anything changes.
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
