{"id":280903,"date":"2026-02-08T17:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/280903\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T17:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:35:14","slug":"gripping-and-compelling-british-spy-thriller-with-star-from-vigil-is-on-tv-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/280903\/","title":{"rendered":"“Gripping” and “compelling” British spy thriller with star from Vigil is on TV tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Betrayal, the new Manchester-set spy thriller <\/a>that ITV has described as “gripping” and “compelling”, is finally airing on TV tonight. The first of four episodes will air at 9pm on ITV1, with episode 2 following at the same time tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The show follows M15 officer John Hughes, played by Endeavour actor Shaun Evans, who is putting all his focus into his job while his marriage crumbles.<\/p>\n

The action kicks off when he meets with an informant who could provide him with the key to taking down a major crime gang, but the informant is assassinated and he has to kill the the murderer before the same happens to him.<\/p>\n

From there, a conspiracy unfolds and he wonders if he’s been betrayed. If that is true, just how high up does the corruption go?<\/p>\n

Evans has been hyping this one up<\/a> as something different for the spy thriller crowd, stating: “It’s about someone having a midlife crisis. Things are no longer working for John and he’s trying to find a way forward.<\/p>\n

\"shaun<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a> <\/p>\n

“His relationship is falling down around his ears, and he no longer has the respect at work for his maverick qualities. His body is beginning to fail and his currency in the world is changing.<\/p>\n

“If you set that against the world of international espionage, it becomes a very interesting dual story.”<\/p>\n

\"shaun<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Shaun Evans’ character to ‘bring villainy’ as he joins BBC’s hit Liverpool-set crime drama<\/a><\/p>\n

The show’s cast includes Suffragette’s Romola Garai, I, Jack Wright’s Nikki Amuka-Bird, EastEnders’ Zahra Ahmadi, The Outlaws’ Gamba Cole, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’s Omid Djalili, Grantchester’s Matthew Tennyson, Unforgotten’s Hayley Tamaddon, House of the Dragon’s Anthony Flanagan, G\u2019wed’s Paddy Rowan and Out There’s Waj Ali.<\/p>\n

It was directed by A Very Royal Scandal’s Julian Jarrold, while The Scandalous Lady W’s David Eldridge wrote the script.<\/p>\n

Betrayal airs tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Taylor Swift, is here! Buy Taylor in newsagents or online<\/a>, priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Betrayal, the new Manchester-set spy thriller that ITV has described as “gripping” and “compelling”, is finally airing on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[137241,635,144371,637,146,85,46,636,144370,411],"class_list":["post-280903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-3622d3b7-62f7-4cfa-9669-8eba3dd783d0","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-british-thriller-with-vigil-star-is-on-tv-tonight","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}