Coma on Channel 5 sees Jason Watkins play Simon, a kind-hearted family man who tries to lie his way out of a crime after a split-second error in judgment. After being menaced by local teens, Simon ends up punching 17-year-old Jordan Franklin (played by Joe Barber), but when he fails to get up and ends up in a coma, it looks like Simon's mistake is set to cost him everything he loves.
Here is everything that happened in Coma episode 1...
The series opens with Simon in the local shop, buying some supplies for his family while on the phone with his wife, who reminds him to buy wine. But when he walks out of the shop he sees a homeless man called Albert being beaten up by a gang of local teenagers. Wanting to step in but knowing he is outnumbered, Simon tentatively tries to stop the thugs, but one of them, Jordan, walks over and threatens him.
Back at home, Simon's wife, Beth, and daughter, Sophie, are having dinner, and Beth tells Simon that a letter has arrived from the mortgage company, but he might want a glass of wine before he reads it, suggesting it isn't good news.
The next morning, Simon goes to work but finds the local gang has keyed his car. However, his day is about to get worse when his boss calls him into his office and tells him he is being made redundant. His manager doesn't seem very sympathetic and ends the meeting when Simon tries to beg for his job, revealing he is already a month behind on his mortgage repayments after it went up.
Back at home, Beth is understanding about Simon's redundancy and offers to work extra shifts in her job as a nurse at the local hospital. Simon isn't keen, but they drink more wine and things seem better.
That night, Simon is woken in the middle of the night by a noise outside. He goes downstairs to see what is happening and catches the gang of teenage boys breaking into a car. He confronts them, and Jordan recognizes him from the other day at the shop and follows him back to his house, making threats.
Sophie wakes up and comes to the door, and Jordan scares her so much that the next morning Simon catches her putting her sheets in the washing machine because she wet the bed.
The next day Simon tries to report Jordan to the police but only gets a voicemail, and in the meantime, he buys a security camera and puts it up on his porch. Beth calls to say she has got an extra shift at work and will be home late, so Simon takes Sophie to the park, only for her to cut her leg on a broken beer bottle left by the teens. Simon confronts the lads, but they all jeer at him and he takes Sophie home to clean up her cut.
That evening, as Simon is applying for jobs online, the doorbell goes. With Beth still out, Simon goes to answer it, but there is no one there. He shuts the door, only for the doorbell to go again, and this time Jordan is waiting for him. Simon confronts him but Jordan threatens him, being aggressive and calling him all sorts of names. Simon gets more and more riled up, and sees red, lashing out and landing a single punch on Jordan. The teen falls backward and doesn't get up, leaving Simon stunned. He checks him and finds blood pouring out the back of his head and onto the road, and soon Simon starts CPR to try and save him.
Within seconds the police, who happened to be passing on their way to arrest some vandals in the park, are there and they assume that Simon found Jordan like this and is saving his life. He doesn't correct them and goes along with the lie, still in shock that his single punch has done so much damage to the teenager.
As Jordan is rushed to hospital, DS Kelly Evans arrives at the scene and talks to Simon. She asks him what happened, and if she saw anyone else at the scene of the crime. He lies that he found Jordan already on the floor and that he saw someone running away. Kelly praises Simon for saving Jordan's life and asks if the CCTV camera on his porch is working. He says no because it has only just been installed, but when he goes indoors later he goes on the camera app on his phone and deletes the footage of him hitting Jordan.
Still in shock and desperate to know how Jordan is, Simon goes to the hospital to see him. But while he is there Kelly catches him, and he is forced to lie that he is there to collect his wife after her shift and just wondered how Jordan was. But before Simon can leave, Jordan's distraught parents arrive to see him, and feeling the pressure of his lies, Simon makes a hasty exit, before having a panic attack in the hospital lobby.
The next morning Simon gets ready to go to work and Paul turns up at his door, wanting to say thank you to the man who saved his son's life, having no idea this whole mess is down to Simon. He hugs Simon and asks if they can talk. Paul is menacing, dangerous and a very different man to Simon, and Simon is clearly terrified of him. Not only because of what he did but also because of the fact he is clearly from a different world to him.
After managing to escape Paul, Simon heads to work and a journalist finds him there. He refuses to talk until she says she will write the story anyway, and so he might as well give his version of events. The next day he is in the local shop again and sees his picture on the front page with a 'Local hero' headline. As he goes back to work, everyone claps, telling him he is amazing for saving Jordan, and the pressure of his lines is clearly weighing heavily on Simon.
Paul turns up at Simon's work and demands he take him for a drink to say thank you. Simon tries to get out of it, but Paul isn't taking no for an answer and they speed off in his car. At the pub, Paul surprises Simon by buying a fancy bottle of red wine and the pair talk, Simon is clearly still terrified of Paul, but the wine soon helps him loosen up.
A strange man comes to the bar and the reason that Paul wanted to take him to the pub becomes clear when he asks Simon if that was the man he saw running away from the scene of the crime. Simon denies it, as obviously we know the man doesn't exist, but Paul has a grudge against this man and follows him into the toilets and beats him unconscious.
While Simon is having his terrifying trip to the pub, Kelly arrives at the house to talk to him. Beth says he isn't there but takes a message, with Kelly asking her to tell Simon not to talk to the press again without the police saying so. Before she leaves, Kelly says Beth is lucky to have a husband who collects her from work, referring to Simon's lie the night of the attack. Beth covers but is clearly confused about why her husband would lie to the police.
Getting home, Simon searches Paul online and it turns out he is a very dangerous man, caught up in all sorts of crime and is part of a drugs bust scandal, leaving Simon more terrified than ever. Beth doesn't question her husband about his lie to the police and keeps the fact she knows he fibbed to herself.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Jordan's parents are keeping vigil by his bedside when the machines around him suddenly start beeping and he flatlines - while all his parents can do is watch on as the doctors rush in.
Elsewhere, Simon's elderly neighbor is seen calling the police incident helpline, telling them he saw who hit Jordan the night of his attack. Is he about to expose Simon's epic lie?
Coma is a four-part series on Channel 5 that runs for four consecutive nights from Monday, March 18 to Thursday, March 21 2024 at 9pm.
