Real life was “stranger than fiction” for the cast of new BBC One murder thriller Rellik, when an actual dead body was found during filming.
The Rellik cast and crew arrived on set at Cambridge Heath Park in East London only to be told they couldn’t film because the location was now a crime scene, actor Paterson Joseph – who plays a psychiatrist in the BBC show – told the Sunday Mirror.
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“The crew arrived to film their own dead body and the police told them they weren’t able to, because they’d found a real dead body.
“It was bizarre, fact being stranger than fiction,” Paterson – who also played Alan Johnson in Peep Show – told the publication.
But apparently this wasn’t the only real life parallel that occurred during the making of the serial killer drama.
“There were a lot of strange coincidences. Richard [Dormer], who plays our main character, getting impetigo and his face being covered in blotches and blemishes.”
He got the same reaction as his actual character, who’s been scarred in an acid attack. We found that odd. Then there was the acid attacks which happened at the same time as we were filming ours. It’s a strange show when it brings out these coincidences.”
Rellik, so titled because it is ‘killer’ spelt backwards, first aired on BBC One last Monday. It begins with the arrest of a serial killer, and traces events backwards in time to reveal more about the crime and the killer himself. It is narrated through the perspective of Dormer’s policeman character, DCI Gabriel Markham.
“It’s fast paced, dark and quite bloody,” added Paterson.
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“It’s a mind-bender it really does twist your thinking. Rellik is dark but with humour. It’s graveyard humour but there’s a light tone in there.”
The show is already a hit with viewers, with one fan praising the show on Twitter as ‘extremely clever’ and ‘a breath of fresh air’.
However, there were some complaints from viewers who couldn’t understand what the actors were saying.
“#Rellik TV sound on full volume and I still can’t hear a [bleep] word! Speak up please?”
Watch the second episode of Rellik on BBC One tonight at 9pm.