Viewers confused by small detail in Red Eye first episode
Viewers were left saying the same thing after watching the first episode of Red Eye.
The gritty thriller, starring Richard Armitage, premiered on ITV1 on 21 April to positive reviews from critics and viewers alike, keeping people on the edge of their seats from the start until the very end.
If you've been living under a rock, you can view the trailer here:
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*Warning: Spoilers ahead*
Red Eye had viewers' eyes glued to the screen from minute one, as Dr Matthew Nolan (Armitage) is extradited to China upon his arrival at Heathrow Airport for a crime he claims he did not commit.
As he lands back home, he is denied a phone call and any form of legal representation, before being placed on a flight back to Beijing, where he must face the Chinese authorities.
Dr Nolan is accompanied by Met Police detective DC Hana Li (Jing Lusi), who was actually born in Hong Kong, and is hesitant to carry the task out due to past traumas with the country.
The series takes place onboard the overnight flight to China, and when passengers suddenly start to die Hana realises that the situation is bigger than she could have imagined.
It's truly gripping television, but some viewers were left confused by one specific detail of the opening episode.
It's all to do with the nature of Dr Nolan's arrest, and how he was denied all basic legal rights and put on a flight back to China, straight away.
To clarify these claims, LADbible spoke to Diana Czugler, a Senior Associate in the Business Crime & Investigations team at Peters & Peters, a UK law firm.
Czugler noted that there are a lot more technicalities and caveats involved with the law, and outlined the essentials we should know with UK law enforcement, specifically UK Border Force Officials.
She explained: "If someone is accused of a criminal offence, such as murder, by a foreign government, then that government cannot just have a quick word with the UK police and ask for that person to be shipped over...
“What is known as ‘extradition’ is a complex and lengthy process, especially when dealing with a country such as China, as there are no formal extradition treaty arrangements in place between the UK and China."
The criminal specialist said that this means that the Chinese government must then make a request to the UK on a strict case-by-case basis that are handled by a special division of the Home Office.
"In short, it’s just not possible to get someone sent back from the UK to China without a court hearing," Czugler highlighted, saying that this would normally take months.
Commenting on another detail in the episode, Czugler said: "Whether someone is a UK citizen is not a factor in their extradition.
"The process will be the same irrespective of nationality. However, if a person is able to lawfully enter the UK, for example because they are a UK national, then there will be a drawn out process involving the UK police and prosecutorial authorities and a number of court hearings, following a formalised request from the country in question to the UK Home Office."
There is a code of conduct to follow, called PACE (derived from the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984), which applies if a border officer (or any other law enforcement agent) exercises criminal arrest powers, and it is the 'cornerstone' of what somebody under arrest is entitled to.
The Senior Associate also said that anyone under arrest would be offered free legal advice in the first instance, with there being several other safeguards in place as well.
"Various time limits also apply, including, for example, in terms of how long someone can be kept in custody, be offered refreshments, take breaks, and of course consult a legal adviser," Czugler explained.
Concluding, Czugler stated that 'obviously entertainment is entertainment', but that in real-life, it is not expected for anyone to ever immediately be returned to any country, unless they are being deported - though this does not apply as the character is a UK citizen.
"There would be a very drawn out court process, but clearly, that will not be very good television," she joked.
Czugler also said that she would fully expect to be able to attend to a client if they called her and said that they had been arrested at an airport, and she would seek to negotiate their release from custody, which would be followed by the long extradition process - something that brings about its own conditions and laws.
Also, I don't know if Red Eye would have been as lauded if we were watching Dr Nolan wait for a court hearing.
The next episode of Red Eye airs on ITV1 on 28 April at 9pm. However, if you can't wait, all six episodes of the series are available to stream on ITVX now.
Topics: Crime, ITV, TV, UK News, Richard Armitage
Joshua Nair