Nina Toussaint-White has teased her “tense, suffocating” upcoming thriller Witness No. 3, in which she plays a single mother who becomes a key witness to a grisly crime.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, the Bodyguard star described premise of the upcoming Channel 5 show, before teasing exactly how her lead character Jodie becomes a victim of witness intimidation.
“I would describe it [the series] as tense, suffocating – a voyeuristic psychological thriller. And it forces the audience to work out what they would do. How would they do the right thing? And at what cost?” she said.
The actress plays Jodie, the eponymous ‘Witness No. 3’ who Toussaint-White describes as a “normal girl” who unwittingly “witnessed a killer and his victim moments before a murder has happened”.
“She’s a single mum. She owns a hairdressing salon. She’s a strong part of her community. She’s very community-led and based and one morning, she’s at work, [and] she looks at her window and she sees two men crossing the road,” Toussaint-White said.
“Now, this seems like nothing out of the ordinary. But the police – a few days later – they put out an appeal for people to step forward and make a statement. And Jodie, being the girl who does the right thing, steps forward to make this statement, thinking that whatever she says has little to no weight in their investigation.”
However, she continued, “We soon realise that she’s actually witnessed a killer and his victim moments before a murder has happened. And this then makes Jodie a really a major player in the murder investigation; she becomes the ‘witness number three’.”
On the intimidation Jodie faces in the run-up to the trial, Toussaint-White described the “paranoia” that stalks Jodie throughout the series.
“The killer is part of a gang, and if she [Jodie] keeps on with her statement, the gang member will go to prison. So this gang then starts to intimidate her,” she said.
In the series, the gang begins to “threaten” Jodie, beginning with “weird texts and memes”, which then escalates into “break[ing] into her mum’s home while she’s in bed”.
“Throughout the four episodes, we see Jodie’s battle with paranoia. We see how she begins to suspect strangers walking down the streets, suspect the people that she loves, and we see this fighting determination within her.”
Additional reporting by Abby Robinson.
Witness No. 3 is coming to Channel 5 on Monday 18th July. Looking for something else to watch? Visit our Drama hub or check out our TV Guide.
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