The Walk-In viewers left “feeling sick” after the ITV drama’s traumatic opening scene
VIEWERS of The Walk-In have been left “feeling sick” after the new drama kicked off with a “gruesome” scene.
Actor Stephen Graham stars in the new five-part series as a reformed right-wing extremist set against the backdrop of the EU Referendum.
His character, Matthew Collins – now an anti-fascist activist journalist – is seen working in the investigations department of an anti-racism and anti-fascism organisation.
Based on true events, the first episode left viewers in shock within the first few minutes of The Walk-In being on air.
It showed a reenactment of the attempted murder of Dr Sarandev Bhambra, a dentist who was set upon by a Nazi-obsessed loner as he shopped in a Tesco Express.
Dr Bhambra almost died in the 2015 racist attack, which saw him butchered with a claw hammer and a 30cm-long machete.
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His attacker, Zach Davies, told onlookers he carried it out in revenge for the 2013 murder of soldier Lee Rigby. He was later caged for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years.
But viewers of The Walk-In found the scenes too awful to bear.
One tweeted: “I feel sick. This is gonna be tough to watch.”
Another added: “That was gruesome on every level.”
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A third even wrote: “Wtf did i just witness?”
In upcoming episodes, Matthew – played by Stephen – will foil a plan to kill an MP.
He is a reformed neo-Nazi who now works as a journalist for anti-racism organisation Hope Not Hate.
After the 2016 murder of MP Jo Cox, Matthew had received an email the following year from someone claiming to be a member of a specific far-right group he had struggled to infiltrate, who alerted him to a plan to murder the second MP.
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The drama follows Matthew as he attempts to stop the murder but also the radicalisation of young white men, by running moles – or walk-ins – to far right organisations.
He does this with the goal of gaining inside information about their activities, and publishing this online to expose and fracture them.