A TRIDENT nuclear submarine provides the setting for a new BBC thriller airing this weekend.

Six part series Vigil, starring Suranne Jones and Martin Compston, focuses on a death on board the titular nuclear submarine that coincides with a fishing trawler going missing.

The Royal Navy’s 'continuous-at-sea deterrent' has been operation using Barrow-built boats since 1969.

The show will air its first two episodes on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday and the same time the following night,with the rest of the series going out weekly on Sunday nights.

A description of the thriller's plot said: "When a crew member is found dead on board the Trident nuclear submarine HMS Vigil, police in Scotland are called in to investigate.

"The catch? The UK’s nuclear deterrent must remain unbroken, so the submarine stays on patrol and Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) must go aboard to begin an investigation.

"Although the death was written off as an accidental overdose, Amy suspects foul play.

"But when the crew close ranks in the face of Amy’s questioning, a new threat overshadows her inquiry."

The show's writer, Tom Edge, explained the concept: “The ‘Continuous At Sea Deterrent’, better known as ‘Trident’, has been a contentious part of national life for half a century now, a stock of nuclear missiles kept hundreds of feet below the sea surface.

"But this world has rarely been explored on screen. I can’t wait to take a BBC One audience down with us, into the pitch-black icy waters of the unseen Atlantic, where tomorrow’s geopolitical struggles are already being played out.”

Four Vanguard-class submarines form the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent force.

Dreadnought submarines, the successor to the programme, are being built in Barrow's shipyard.

The programme supports some 30,000 jobs as a whole.