The Rig: A supernatural oil rig thriller with very Scottish roots
Claustrophobic with no way on or off and no way of getting away from someone you don’t agree with – an oil rig lends itself so perfectly as the setting of a drama, it’s a surprise we don’t see more shows based on them.
New supernatural thriller simply called The Rig sees a crew cut off from the mainland when a mysterious thick fog appears, and with no communication with the outside world and plenty of dissent among the characters, it’s not long until things start unravelling.
The first Amazon Video original to be shot entirely in Scotland, the show boasts a stellar cast of Scottish actors including Martin Compston, Iain Glen and Mark Bonnar, and also includes Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire playing a character we’ve not seen her do before.
She told Sky News she sees parallels between the lives of those working on rigs, and those in her own profession.
“It’s similar to an actor’s life without all the danger.
“When I read it – because I knew nothing about rigs or that industry – I did think it was similar in the way that you go into this bubble with these people who you have to become close with instantly and then you’re going to leave.
“And forming really close attachments that you can be detached to after was something that I’m comfortable with and know.”
There was also some familiarity in the script for Line Of Duty star Martin Compston.
Brought up in Greenock in Scotland’s west central lowlands, the actor’s own father worked on oil rigs, and friends of his still do.
Martin Compston stars in The Rig. Pic: Amazon Prime
He told Sky News: “It was lovely to lean on them because being an actor, it can feel otherworldly to people who are not in the industry, so it was nice to lean on them and ask them about different things.
“But I’m sure they’ll pick me up on a few things when it comes out.
“Because my dad still works in the shipyards, I got to give him my boots after the thing, which was lovely!”
As well as being a supernatural drama, The Rig also serves as an environmental warning.
But Compston says that doesn’t change the fact that they’re there to serve an audience.
Emily Hampshire. Pic: Amazon Prime
“I think our first role is to entertain, to get something with a message across it has to be entertaining first or people are just going to switch off, you know?
“So I think that’s what David’s [Macpherson – the show’s creator] script does really well, it’s high octane, it’s enjoyable, and then I mean, climate change is here, it’s not up for debate and we should be very proud of what we achieved in the North Sea in terms of the feats of engineering, and being Scottish it’s a part of our heritage we should cherish and it’s still got a role to play going forward, but that role is getting greatly reduced.
“The world’s changing and we need to evolve with it – Mark Bonner’s got that wonderful line – ‘you keep punching holes in the earth, eventually it’s going to punch back’.”
The show boasts a stellar cast of Scottish actors. Pic: Amazon Prime
Hampshire says she was keen to be involved in the show because she wanted to play the scientist Rose in the hope she would become more like her.
The actress admitted: “I just love how work obsessed she is because I’m that way.
“But she’s this woman who goes into this man’s world and is unapologetic about it and doesn’t care about being liked, which was something – I’m Canadian, we’re sorry for everything, ‘I’m so sorry I exist’.
“I wanted some of that Rose kind of like, doesn’t give a s**t to rub off on me.”
The role brought her to Scotland for the first time, but she says she felt very at home in the country.
“I just instantly felt like these are my people in a way – coz I’m Canadian and we are very different from Americans – there is really this connection, I feel, with UK actors and Scottish actors and people that we can make fun of ourselves.
“And there’s a sense of humour that I respond to, that you guys have.”
For Compston the opportunity to film a whole series without leaving his home country was something he really enjoyed.
“I’m chuffed to bits with it.
“The industry up there just feels like it’s thriving and [on previous jobs] people would come up to the location shoots – I’ve even done that myself on a big location movie – and then we come down and do the studio down south.
“But the fact now we have these facilities, and we can actually keep our crew, our very talented crews local and have work there you know, I’m delighted with it.”
The Rig is out on Prime Video today.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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