In an unspecified country (albeit one which has experienced some kind of US military intervention), reporter Jennifer and Pentagon contractor Jim have been blindfolded, handcuffed and kept prisoner by unseen captors. To pass the time and to help try and keep a hold on their sanity, they play games of I-Spy, tell stories of their lives in flashbacks (and forwards), even go on pretend dates to help keep spirits up. Chapman’s book shudders around this timeframe with a hallucinatory energy that always keeps us on our toes and thus makes the amplified indie rock seem a more appropriate choice.
Jarrow’s score sits a little differently in the show, soundtracking the action as much as pushing it along, sung mainly as it is by the band’s frontman Pierce Reid, serving an almost Brechtian-commentating role which emphasises and re-emphasises the bleakness of the situation. For there’s no lightness here, the eventual fate of at least of the hostages is revealed early on and the way that that impacts on the family back home is movingly, disturbingly portrayed (Reid multi-roling here with skill).