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Possession’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw says "intense" jump scares are necessary for chilling new drama

Some of the scenes may have you on the edge of your seat – but that's the point.

Published: Monday, 3 August 2026 at 12:46 pm

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Upcoming Sky supernatural thriller, Possession, certainly isn't afraid of a jump scare or eerie moment – with series lead Gugu Mbatha-Raw at the epicentre of the terror.

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She heads up the cast as Claudia, a mixed-race lawyer who travels to Jamaica to work on an inheritance claim case for her client, wealthy white aristocrat Oliver Connaught (Jonny Lee Miller).

Mbatha-Raw is no stranger to a variety of roles, having starred in the likes of Black Mirror, The Morning Show, Loki and more recently, The War Between the Land and the Sea.

But even though the actress has featured in many projects, she admits that she hasn't starred in anything quite as "terrifying" as Possession.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw standing in a room, wearing a blue blouse and her hair is slicked back into a bun. She's got a serious expression on her face as she stares out of the window.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Possession. Sky

When asked about how it was to film the show's most tense and frightening scenes, Mbatha-Raw revealed in an exclusive chat to Radio Times: "Yeah, I’d done maybe one other project that has a supernatural element but nothing quite so terrifying as this! For me, those scenes to play are – it’s really intense. You have to kind of stay with the truth of those moments."

She went on: "And obviously, there’s lots of technical aspects to filming – I don’t feel freaked out while I’m filming. But I feel like it’s fun to have those genre elements because I think they make it more accessible to an audience as well, some of the weightier themes.

"If you are in a jump scare, you are engaged. I think we’re in such a distracted era where people are watching TV and scrolling on their phones, there’s so many distractions. But I think this particular genre grabs your attention and I think that that is something, as I say in the era we’re in now, attention is such a difficult thing to hold onto."

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Mbatha-Raw added: "I’d enjoyed filming those scenes, I mean some of them were gruelling and strenuous. You are manufacturing these emotions and it takes a toll on you because you’re physically going through all of those adrenaline-pumping sequences.

"But I think ultimately, it makes it very engaging for an audience because you really can’t look away.”

Mbatha-Raw stars alongside Miller and Bob Marley: One Love's Sheldon Shepherd, whilst Bel Powley (Everything I Know About Love), Sean Gilder (Slow Horses), Shantol Jackson (Death in Paradise) and Richard Dillane (Wolf Hall) are just some of the names that make up the rest of the cast.

Talking about writing those supernatural elements of the show, series creator and writer Karla Crome added that it was “absolutely" a fun part of the experience.

"Because you let your imagination be limitless then. It really was a case of me saying ‘I think this character in this situation, they need something that’s very kind of pedestrian and necessary’. But then you have this device of magic and spirituality to throw into the mix, which makes things so much more exciting for us all.”

The synopsis for Possession reads: "Claudia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an ambitious young bi‑racial lawyer, travels to Jamaica to challenge an inheritance claim made by a local man, Cudjoe East (Sheldon Shepherd), against Oliver Connaught (Jonny Lee Miller), a wealthy white aristocrat.

"But the case takes an unsettling turn when Claudia discovers that the disputed estate is the very place that has haunted her nightmares: Hope Hill, the Connaught family’s former plantation.

"As Claudia and Oliver dig deeper, they uncover a disturbing link between the plantation’s brutal past and the injustices still shaping the present."

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Possession is coming to Sky and NOW on Thursday 6 August. You can sign up to NOW from £3.99 a month.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Morgan Cormack, smiling against a lime green background

Morgan CormackDrama Writer

Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.

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