Filming for the highly anticipated second series of ‘The Fall’ has started in Belfast with Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan returning to the Northern Ireland set.
Anderson returns as her character Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson continues her desperate hunt for the serial murderer Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan, who has just wrapped filming for the new ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ movie. The show’s second season follows on from the season one finale. A personal link from Spector’s past opens up some clues for Gibson but provokes Spector in ways that threatens to jeopardise the whole investigation. Gibson is forced to take ever greater risks but the closer she comes to capturing him, the more Spector trespasses into her private world, delighting in taunting and provoking her.
Written and directed by Allan Cubitt and produced by Julian Stevens and Gub Neal, ‘The Fall’ has received international critical acclaim with a consolidated average audience of 4.3m and the final episode of season one reaching 4.7m. The chemistry between the two title characters, Gibson and Spector, played a large role in raking in audiences as their escalating rivalry became the lynchpin of the first season.
Speaking about the upcoming second series, Cubitt said: “I'm incredibly pleased to be back in Belfast working with producer Julian Stevens and so many of the original crew who made series one of ‘The Fall’ such a pleasure to work on. I'm incredibly grateful to the BBC for allowing me this opportunity and the chance to continue my working partnership with Gub Neal of the Artists Studio.”
2014 IFTA nominated actor Dornan said: “I’m delighted to be back in production for the second series of ‘The Fall’. Allan Cubitt has outdone himself, and the scripts are stunning.”
With six hour-long episodes, Cubitt takes over from Flemish director Jakob Verbruggen in his directorial debut of ‘The Fall’. Principle cast returning to the drama is John Lynch as ACC Jim Burns and Bronagh Waugh as Spector’s wife Sally-Ann. Archie Panjabi, Gerard McCarthy, Emmett J. Scanlan, Karen Hassan and Simon Delaney are set to make a return as camera begin rolling for an expected four months with an additional episode to cover more storyline. The BBC2 series was initially scheduled to begin filming in January, but due to Anderson's ‘Hannibal’ commitments and Dornan's ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ schedule, the shoot was put back until February.
‘The Fall’ is a Fables Limited production in association with Artists Studio with funding from Northern Ireland Screen supported by Invest NI and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The series is commissioned by Janice Hadlow, outgoing Controller of BBC Two and Ben Stephenson, Controller of Drama Commissioning, and will also be executive produced by Stephen Wright through BBC Northern Ireland, Justin Thomson-Glover, Patrick Irwin and Cubitt.
Both RTE in Ireland and Netflix in the United States are on board for the second season, with both providing financing alongside other partners.
