The Guest: BBC sets 1 September premiere for Eve Myles thriller

BBC One has locked in the transmission date for The Guest, a new four-part psychological thriller fronted by Eve Myles (Torchwood, Broadchurch) and Gabrielle Creevy. The series will launch on Monday 1 September 2025 at 9pm, with all episodes made available to stream on BBC iPlayer from the same evening — a watch-it-your-way release designed to serve both weekly viewers and binge-watchers.

Set against a contemporary Welsh backdrop, the drama zeroes in on a relationship that starts as a job and spirals into something darker. Cleaner Ria (Creevy) steps into the orbit of Fran (Myles), an employer whose poise and privacy mask a tangle of secrets. As boundaries blur, the pair slip into a push-pull dynamic where trust, power, and control are constantly up for grabs.

What is The Guest about?

The story is built as a slow-burn cat-and-mouse: two women circling, testing, and disarming each other. Ria arrives with needs of her own — financial strain, a desire to belong, a hunger to prove herself. Fran, meanwhile, holds the keys to a life Ria can see but may never fully enter. The lure of that promise creates an imbalance that the series exploits with precision.

Across four episodes, their connection hardens into an intense co-dependence. The script plays with questions of class and intimacy: who serves whom, and what happens when that line moves. Expect shifting loyalties, half-truths, and the kind of small betrayals that snowball into real danger. The tone leans psychological rather than procedural, with tension driven by character choices rather than big set-pieces.

While plot details are under wraps, the show’s setup hints at escalating manipulation — gifts that become obligations, confidences that turn into leverage, and a friendship that starts to feel like a trap. It’s the sort of contained, character-led thriller the BBC has used to strong effect in its 9pm slot, where the focus is on performance, pace, and a tight narrative arc.

The ensemble adds texture around the central duo. Here’s who to look for:

• Siôn Daniel Young as Lee Mace
• Bethan Mary-James as Sharla
• Julian Lewis Jones as Simon Sharp
• Clive Russell as Derek Abbott
• Emun Elliott as Richard Abbott
• Joseph Ollman as Mike Rice
• Catherine Ayers as Helen
• Lola Waters as Penny
• Kimberley Nixon as Eleri Abbott

Myles brings a familiar steeliness, honed in genre fare and crime drama, while Creevy — known for her breakout in In My Skin — has the grounded presence to make Ria’s choices feel both understandable and unsettling. The pairing is the point: the series lives or dies on their chemistry, and the production clearly leans into that.

Who’s behind the series — and how to watch

The Guest is written, created, and executive produced by Matthew Barry. It’s a co-production from BBC Cymru Wales and Quay Street Productions, the Manchester-based outfit led by Nicola Shindler, whose name has become shorthand for polished, character-first drama. Davina Earl and Shindler executive produce for Quay Street, with Rebecca Ferguson and Nick Andrews executive producing for the BBC.

All four episodes are directed by Ashley Way, giving the series a single visual language and consistent pacing from start to finish. Karen Lewis serves as producer, steering the production through a compact schedule. Filming ran from September to November 2024 in Cardiff, tapping into a Welsh production ecosystem that has expanded steadily over the past decade.

The decision to make all episodes available on iPlayer on day one mirrors the BBC’s recent pattern for contained thrillers. It lets the audience choose: lean into the Monday 9pm ritual on BBC One, or run through the whole story in one sitting. That flexibility has proved effective for shows that hinge on jaw-tightening momentum and cliffhangers — the sort of structure where waiting a week can feel like torture.

Practically, the four-part format also helps with word-of-mouth. Short enough to finish quickly, long enough to feel substantial, it gives writers space to complicate motivations without padding. Expect each hour to lay a breadcrumb trail — an offhand detail here, a withheld answer there — that pays off by the finale.

Behind the camera, the production mix suggests a clean split of strengths: Quay Street’s track record with premium scripted drama, BBC Cymru Wales’ commitment to nurturing Welsh stories and talent, and a director used to keeping a tight grip on tone. The Cardiff shoot keeps the show anchored; locations can do a lot of storytelling in thrillers like this, where a hallway or kitchen can feel as charged as any interrogation room.

For viewers, the essentials are simple. Broadcast begins Monday 1 September at 9pm on BBC One. All four episodes land on BBC iPlayer the same night. If you want to savour the tension, stay weekly. If you want the full hit, binge it. Either way, the hook is the same: two compelling performances, one volatile relationship, and a story that keeps tightening the screws.