What if you meet a total stranger and then discover that you have more in common than you ever thought possible?
That’s the ultimate journey of the ITV series Strangers from 2018 that was just recently aired on German free TV for the first time, which prompted me to watch it again. And it made me realise again just how bloody good it is!
Strangers tells the story of university professor Jonah Mulray learning of his wife Megan’s sudden death in Hong Kong, where she spends longer stretches throughout the year away from their home in London. Despite his fear of flying, Jonah then travels to Hong Kong to identify his wife’s body and bring her remains home to the UK. But when he gets there, he makes the staggering discovery that his wife led a whole other life in Hong Kong. And part of that life was being married to a local police officer for 20 years with a daughter who Jonah never knew existed.
As if that’s not already shock to the system enough, when Jonah finally connects the dead battery of his mobile phone to a charger, he finds a voicemail Megan left just before her death – a voicemail that indicates she was not, in fact, killed in a tragic car accident but that she was deliberately shot. Jonah takes this to the police, but he soon has to discover that not only does corruption still run deep in this country, there are also forces of political power play involved that his wife may have been tangled up in.
As Jonah starts digging deeper in his search for the truth, the dirt only gets thicker and stickier, and a wild 8-episode ride ensues that takes us on an intense, suspense-filled trip of one stunning revelation after the next.
Now, I know this sounds like a clichéd marketing pitch to try and sell you the premise of Strangers. But it really is that gripping. It’s an intense ride, to the point that I ended up watching the last episode until 1:30 am, even though I had already seen it a few months prior and knew I could watch it at my leisure in the streaming library for the next 30 days.
John Simm plays Jonah Mulray – a guy who couldn’t be more mundane if he tried. Happily married to his beautiful wife Megan, he teaches politics as a professor at a London university. But then, when he receives the shocking news of his wife’s death and finds out that she had a whole secret life and secret family in Hong Kong, his life is turned entirely upside down.
His first time in Hong Kong, Jonah is like a fish out of water. The city, the culture, the people, the language – all completely alien to him. Having to navigate not only a world that couldn’t be more removed from what he is familiar with, he also has to work through the intense grief of his wife’s sudden death, resurfacing memories and the complete rollercoaster of emotions while he questions whether the past few years of his life have been a complete lie.
This has been one of the most gripping TV series I’ve watched in a long time. Not only is it like a book you can’t put down, it also delivers emotional gut punches and ties you to the characters and their complexities in a way that you want to keep following them and learn more about them. You want to know who they are and how they ended up where they are, how they deal with this completely unorthodox situation that they’ve all been involuntarily thrust into.
It’s completely compelling to see it unravel how Jonah makes the acquaintance of strangers who turn into allies, some even tentative friends and inadvertent family. And some into enemies, too. Not unexpectedly, John Simm portrays it all brilliantly. I’d even go as far as saying this is up there among the best work he’s done in the past twenty years and it’s a role that offers incredible emotional range to play with.
The series was mostly shot on location in Hong Kong with some of the interiors filmed back in the studio in the UK. If you’re interested in a deeper dive on this, I can recommend this video published by the British Film Institute where some of the cast and crew speak about Strangers and the process of writing, making and filming it.
Interestingly, this project was initially called White Dragon, which it is actually sometimes referred to on streaming platforms or other entertainment media sites. I’m not sure why it was renamed, but I think Strangers works pretty well as a metaphorical title.
What’s also striking when you watch it is the music. The main theme is full of discordant notes that underlines the haunting alienation Jonah is feeling as he is thrust into a whole new culture on another continent that he knows very little about while he’s also working through his grief. The soundtrack, composed by Raffertie, is available on Spotify and several other platforms.
Starring alongside John Simm are Emilia Fox, Anthony Wong, Katie Leung and Dervla Kirwan. Strangers is available to stream on different platforms (please check for your own country) and on DVD and Blu-ray in Europe. Sadly, there are no extras on the DVD or Blu-ray release.
Strangers – John Simm Compliation
Originally posted on the John Simm Society blog on 19 May 2026.
Leave a Reply