Richard Armitage’s new ITV thriller Red Eye gets release date

Richard Armitage’s new TV thriller about a doctor mixed up in a fatal car crash and a possible high-level conspiracy, will air later this month.

The British actor, who last year confirmed that he came out to “anyone who mattered” when he was 19, will be swapping the family feuds of Netflix’s Fool Me Once, in which he starred alongside former Mr Gay UK Dino Fetscher, for a deadly flight and an icy reception in London in ITV’s Red Eye.

Armitage plays Dr Matthew Nolan, who finds himself arrested at Heathrow Airport after returning home from a conference in China. Police want answers concerning a car crash that happened during his trip.

The six-part drama will see Nolan escorted back to Beijing by DC Hana Li, played by Jing Lusi, on a late-night ‘red eye’ flight. And there’s further turbulence ahead.

The official plot synopsis reads: “When a first death occurs [in flight], DC Li begins to suspect foul play. Further deaths confirm that Nolan is in danger, and, after a call from MI5, Hana finds herself embroiled in an escalating conspiracy.

“Back in London, we follow Hana’s sister, scrappy reporter Jess (Jemma Moore) who is running her own investigation into Nolan’s extradition and finds herself having to flee an unknown assassin.

“And in Thames House, the head of MI5, Madeline Delaney (Lesley Sharp), breaks protocol and risks her entire career to not only help Hana and Nolan stay alive but also to expose an international conspiracy that seems to implicate both China and people in her own government.”

Armitage is no stranger to thrillers. Aside from the adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once, and having been forced to react to rumours that he might be cast in an upcoming Bond film, he has starred in Ocean’s Eight, Stay Close and Obsession.

He also played the murderous Francis Dolarhyde in Hannibal, TV’s slant on Thomas Harris’ tales of a cannibalistic psychiatrist.

Red Eye premieres on ITV and ITVX from 21 April.