Iwan Rheon: Heatwave Thriller 'The Rapture' Resonates Now
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- Iwan Rheon stars in "The Rapture," a BBC psychological thriller adapted from Liz Jensen's bestselling novel, streaming now on BBC iPlayer and airing on BBC One, produced by Mammoth Screen with support from Creative Wales and the Welsh government.
- Rheon told BBC Radio Wales that the show's heatwave setting "really hits home" and "resonates in today's world" given global warming, joking that the cast needed heavy moisturiser to look sweaty while filming in cold, "changeable" south Wales weather last autumn.
- The drama follows forensic psychologist Dr Gabriele Fox (Ruth Madeley) and 17-year-old Bethany Krall (India Amarteifio), a convicted murderer who claims psychic powers and innocence, with Gavin and Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones also in the cast.
- Rheon has two more Welsh productions in the pipeline: sci-fi comedy "Out There" with Michael Sheen (filmed in Ceredigion) and "The Mountain" on Anglesey, directed by Celyn Jones and co-starring Peter Mullan and singer Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor).
- Rheon, who grew up in Cardiff, called Wales' creative industry a structure of "fantastic crews" and "great infrastructure now," praising its "innate" ability to produce actors without naming names.
Why it matters: The show lands as the UK experiences one of its warmest starts to a year on record, and Rheon's own framing — that the heatwave backdrop feels newly urgent — positions the drama as a climate-tinted thriller rather than a pure crime procedural, a distinction likely to shape how the BBC markets the series to audiences already attuned to warming-weather headlines.
