Sun, sea… and a ghost ship

Sun, sea… and a ghost ship: A luxury yacht’s Turin in 2022 found abandoned in paradise in new thriller No Escape – and two English teenagers hold the key to the mystery

• No Escape starts with a boat abandoned in the middle of the Indian Ocean
• READ MORE: This Indian Ocean island may be small – but it offers rainforests, giant tortoises and some of the world’s most beautiful beaches

It begins with an intriguing mystery: a boat called The Blue, abandoned like the Marie Celeste in the middle of the Indian Ocean, is discovered by police divers responding to an emergency call. There’s no one on board.

Then we go back in time to meet two English teenagers, Lana (Abigail Lawrie) and Kitty (Rhianne Barreto). We know they’ve done something wrong and are on the run in south-east Asia but we don’t know what lies hidden in their past.

A chance encounter leads them to embark on The Blue, which is island-hopping in the Philippines and filled with gorgeous but complicated party-loving creatures all hiding secrets of their own.

This is the setting for No Escape, a new seven-part Paramount+ drama based on Lucy Clarke’s bestselling thriller The Blue – and it pulls you in like a riptide. The characters are all intriguing, there’s mystery upon mystery and the scenery is stunning.

‘It has lots of thrilling twists and turns, secrets and lies, with a lovely female friendship at its heart,’ says Abigail, who spent seven months shooting the series in Thailand. ‘These two girls on the run end up on this boat with a huge mix of different personalities. It leads to chaos and a lot of darkness.’

Lana (Abigail Lawrie) and Denny (Sean Keenan) are shipmates in the mystery-rousing  new drama

We see the action through the lens of her character Lana, but she’s an unreliable voice. We know she’s a thief who’s done something terrible, and a lifetime in care has taught her not to trust anyone.

‘Lana is hard to figure out. She doesn’t give a lot away. I think initially you don’t trust her but as the series goes on we see a lot of different sides to her and maybe understand why she is how she is.’

Filming the series sounds unforgettable alongside actors from all over the world. Kiwi former Neighbours star Jay Ryan plays the skipper, Aaron, who owns the boat and was a successful barrister until a tragedy made him start a new life, while Australian Sean Keenan plays his opportunist brother Denny.

Kuwaiti-Cameroonian actress Colette Dalal Tchantcho stars as rich American Michelle, while Frenchman Narayan David Hecter, who was in Riviera, is complicated artist Joseph Melina. The final piece of the jigsaw is German actor Elmo Anton Stratz, who plays ex-tennis prodigy Heinrich Krause. They’re all trying to escape from something.

The actors had three weeks to acclimatise to Thailand and learn how to sail, and Abigail was also told to work on her tan.

‘I basically had to get tanned for my job,’ she laughs. ‘Having that first three weeks together was a great bonding experience that we’d need later on while we were on the boat.’

All the scenes on The Blue were filmed out in the ocean.

‘There were times when it was very choppy and some crew members started feeling pretty ill,’ she says. ‘Logistically it can be tricky filming out at sea but it was brilliant. The boat is definitely a character in the show.’

It begins with an intriguing mystery: a boat called The Blue, abandoned like the Marie Celeste in the middle of the Indian Ocean, is discovered by police divers responding to an emergency call

There’s a tense scene in the first episode when three of those on board swim to another boat at night, and Abigail admits it was one of the longest nights of her life. 

‘There were divers checking what was below us, but swimming in the sea in the dark was scary. We filmed until about 5am. I’m pleased at how good it looks – it’s as eerie as it felt.’

While there’s no escape for the passengers on The Blue, for the actors sailing to so many stunning Thai locations was a joy.

‘We’d pinch ourselves,’ says Abigail. ‘I’m not sure I’ll ever spend that amount of time in a place like that again, but I was ready to come home at the end.’

No Escape will be available on Paramount+ from Thursday.

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