After months of teasers, discussion and the odd health and safety query, Amazon Prime’s much-anticipated show ‘The Rig’ is finally here.
From today, subscribers to the online streaming service will be able to watch the first and second episode of the supernatural thriller, set on a fictional North Sea platform.
Complete with an all-star cast, including Line of Duty’s Martin Compston and Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen, The Rig premiered in Edinburgh last month.
News of the show first emerged in 2020, since when excitement has been gradually building, particularly within the oil and gas industry.
Shot exclusively in Scotland, The Rig follows the crew of the fictional Kinloch Bravo, who “find themselves cut off from all communication with the Scottish mainland by a mysterious fog”.
Running out of time, “they must fight to find a way home whilst managing environmental pressures, mounting paranoia and rising tensions”.
“But as the threat facing them reveals itself to be something beyond their wildest imagination, the divided crew must form an alliance to ensure survival.”
Stars of the show
Game of Thrones and Aberdeen University alum Iain Glen leads the team as OIM “Magnus MacMillan”.
He is joined b Line of Duty star Martin Compston, as communications manager “Fulmar Hamilton” and Schitts Creek’s Emily Hampshire as “Rose Mason”.
© Amazon PrimeOther crew members include Owen Teale as “Lars Hutton” and Mark Bonnar as “Alwyn Evans”.
And for those of you noticing a common theme, yes, all the characters take their names from real-life offshore assets.
Local input
Fittingly for a show that uses the North Sea oil and gas industry as its backdrop, The Rig has been filmed exclusively in Scotland.
The main set for the six-part series, one of Amazon Studio’s “biggest investments”, was the Bath Road studios in Leith, Edinburgh.
Local companies with oil and gas know how were also drafted in to try to make the Kinloch Bravo as authentic as possible.
Aberdeen firms North Sea Core (NSC) and HRH Geology both provided authentic industry equipment and materials, used to furnish the Bath Road set.
Don’t get hung up on gloves, boots and goggles
For as long as there have been promotional pictures of The Rig, there have been offshore workers poking fun at PPE, or the lack thereof.
Commenting on a picture of Martin Compston that emerged last year, Kenny Robertson, regional director of PPE specialist Red Wing said “he’d be absolutely hammered, he’d be up for disciplinary!”, noting his lack of gloves, hard hat or goggles.
Following the release of the trailer, there were even more comments about the lack of connect with real life offshore.
“Nae a BOSIET in sight” said one person, while another joked “there wasn’t a single set of Turkey teeth or a protein shaker in sight, nobody mentioned the price of their new Rolex… and nobody farted!!”
Not everyone was so critical though – “A show about a rig full of dead zombie like-entities drifting around looking busy, and eating for 21 days? Must be based on a true story.”
You can read Allister Thomas’ review of the first episode of The Rig here.