The Capture writer reveals how Joe Dempsie's "ugly mess" of a character interrogates controversial real-world topic

*Warning - contains major spoilers for The Capture season 3 episode 3.*

In amongst the shocking reveals and major moments of The Capture season 3, episode 3, the instalment also introduced Joe Dempsie's character James Whitlock properly for the first time.

While it currently seems as though Whitlock has been framed for the murder of Isaac Turner, appearing on camera footage via Correction while Rachel Carey saw first hand that Noah Pierson committed the shooting, he certainly does not appear to be an innocent or law-abiding citizen.

Far from it, in fact, as the character was stopped mere moments before he was, it seemed, about to commit a massacre, shooting dead a group of migrants to the UK as they arrived at the coast on a small boat.

Radio Times caught up with The Capture's creator, Ben Chanan, about this moment and Dempsie's character, and why he wanted to tackle the thorny issue of immigration and extremist reactions to it.

Chanan said: "I think whatever's going on in the news while I'm writing The Capture gets eaten up and chewed out in some form. And people were obsessed - as they still are - but they seemed particularly obsessed last year with the subject of immigration. And so I just reflect what I see out there and the conversations that I have and I hear out there.

"I have not written a character like that before. He seems like a very different character for The Capture. His obsession is analogue. Yes, he's in the digital world, in that that's the way he communicates, but he's a very analogue kind of character."

Chanan continued: "I was really interested in writing a character like that and not making it easy for the audience, because although he appears to be doing some terrible, terrible things, you don't envy him. He's in a bind as well.

"I think it'd be very easy to make him dislikable or just like, really, really likeable and you feel sorry for him, but he's just a really ugly mess in between, and that's how I wanted him.

"Joe Dempsie was my absolute number one choice for that character, and I just couldn't have been happier that he said yes. He's delivered such an interesting performance, because he was interested in those complexities as well."

In another major moment, the episode also ended with the death of long-running character Frank Napier, as Pierson escaped his clutches.

With Whitlock now in custody, and Pierson and Carey now locked in a battle with one another, it seems likely that we'll start to find out just what's going on in the coming episodes.

The Capture season 3 will continue on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 29 March 2026.

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