National treasure Sheridan Smith takes the lead in The Castaways, which has finally made it to British TV screens after it failed to impress critics when it debuted on Paramount+ in 2023.
Channel 5’s latest thriller series sees the surviving passengers of a plane crash marooned on a remote Pacific island.
As they fight for survival and face rising tensions and feuds on the island, back home their relatives search for answers and discover a much bigger conspiracy.
Here’s all you need to know about the gripping drama that’s based on the novel by Lucy Clarke.
When can I watch The Castaways?
The Castaways airs nightly on Channel 5 with the finale episode airing on Thursday, 30 January at 9pm. Shortly after airing on TV, each episode is available to stream on My5.
All five episodes are available to stream now on Paramount+, with monthly membership starting from £7.99.
Check out the trailer below for a glimpse at the action.
Where was The Castaways filmed?
A large portion of the desert island scenes were filmed on the island of Fiji, which ironically was the destination of the doomed flight.
Greece was also used as a major location, especially for beach scenes. However, they came across unexpected challenges with the idyllic country’s weather and the heatwave in July 2023.
Producer Myf Hopkins shared some behind the scenes intel. “In Greece, we hit difficulties with the intense heat in the summer,” they explained. “We had a scene where we needed to light fires, but we couldn’t do that because fires were banned in Greece due to the heatwave. So we had to be clever and find our own way of doing it. We had to replicate something in post production.”
The plane crash scenes weren’t filmed on location, with the action taking place in a studio in Athens, Greece. The scenes took four days to shoot and were all done in sequence.
Actor Dominic Tighe, who portrays survivor Daniel, explained how the scenes were filmed. “They built this incredible airplane interior where the seats could all be moved, the walls and the ceiling could come out and you could bring a crane in,’ he said. “They relied on good old-fashioned Hollywood tricks of shaky camera and lightning effects, but it is very, very effective”
Who is the cast?
National treasure Sheridan Smith as Lori Holme, a recently single woman who finds herself marooned on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean with a misfit band of survivors.
Céline Buckens as Erin Holme, Lori’s sister who is determined to get answers to the disappearance. Céline previously starred in Paramount series The Ex-Wife.
Brendan Cowell (Avatar: The Way of Water) stars as Mike Brass, the pilot of the crashed plane, who seems at the centre of the mystery.
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