One of the most insanely tense and shocking documentaries of all time is on TV tonight

Rory Cashin

We really can’t recommend this enough.

In 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay went missing from his home town in Texas.

Three years later, he was found in thousands of miles away in Spain.

Except everything about him – his appearance, his accent, his memories of his family – appears to be completely different.

That is the set-up for The Imposter, one of the most thrilling, twisted, and completely brilliant documentaries ever made.

To give too much more than that away would spoil the neck-snapping twists and turns the film has in offer, so instead we’re going to break this up with our chat with the movie’s director Bart Layton, as he chats to us with Barry Keoghan about their new movie American Animals, in which Barry tells us watching The Imposter was one of the main reasons why he wanted to work with Bart in the first place:

Of course you don’t just have to take our word for it – here are just a sample of some of the reviews the movie got when it came out in 2012:

“A mesmerizing psychological thriller bulging with twists, turns, nasty insinuations and shocking revelations that might have leapt from the pages of a Patricia Highsmith novel, The Imposter is all the more astonishing because it actually happened.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“Despite a bunch of fourth-wall-breaking re-enactments, the look is consistent with most TV true-crime stories. But the way Layton parcels out information makes this story as strange and fascinating as anyone could desire.” – New York Times

“The documentary equivalent of a page-turner.” – Entertainment Weekly

“One of the most entertaining documentaries to appear since Exit Through the Gift Shop, a film similarly obsessed with role-playing and deception.” – The New York Times

You can check out the trailer below, and you can watch the movie on Film 4 at 1.05am in the early hours of Tuesday 4 September (so maybe set your recorders in the evening of Monday 3 September);