The Sister's Amrita Acharia teases "nightmare" storyline - and "relatable" ghosts

In the series, adapted from Cross' book Burial, Acharia (The Good Karma Hospital) plays Holly Fox, the wife to Russell Tovey's everyman protagonist Nathan. Three years prior to meeting Nathan, her beloved younger sister Elise (played by Sex Education's Simone Ashley) goes missing following a New Year's Eve party.

What Holly doesn't know, however, is that Nathan was somehow involved in her sister Elise's disappearance - and that the terrible secret that he has fought so hard to keep from her is about to be unearthed.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Acharia said that she, like her character Holly, has a younger sister: "My sister is - she's my best friend, we literally grew up being best friends and we live together now as well... so the idea of her just not being around and then - and I don't know whether she's dead or alive [as in The Sister] - it's just horrific. I literally can't imagine it. The [stuff] of nightmares."

In the four-part series, Nathan and his mysterious, unlikely co-conspirator, Bob (Bertie Carvel), are haunted by their actions and their later deceptions, sometimes quite literally...

Acharia added that, as a viewer, she would hope that Nathan and Bob get found out: "I love the consequence of somebody finding out... so I don't want them to get away with it, I want them to really suffer... That's more interesting to watch, that conflict and the inner conflict."

She continued: "I just find it fascinating how absolutely ordinary people put into exceptional circumstances can do extraordinarily terrible things. Then you go into this whole rabbit hole of, if this happened to me, what would I do?... It's like OK, someone has hurt my sister, what would I be capable of as a human being? How angry could I get, how much - I kind of to an extent really feel like Elise's character, the character of Elise is almost relatable, because you kind of go, yeah, I feel like I would come back and haunt someone, if they'd done all that to my family."

You can order Neil Cross’ Burial from Amazon.

The Sister will air on ITV on 26th October 2020. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide, or take a look at our new TV shows 2020 page to find out what's airing this autumn and beyond.