Suranne Jones is hailed ‘phenomenal’ in ‘thrilling’ return of BBC drama Vigil as viewers compare her character to Gentleman Jack and praise chemistry with on screen love interest Rose Leslie
- Suranne Jones has been praised for her chemistry with Rose Leslie
- READ MORE: Vigil review: Plot holes a drone could fly through – but this show is still an explosive watch, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
Suranne Jones has been branded phenomenal in her return to the role as Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva in BBC’s thriller Vigil.
The Manchester-born actress, 45, has been praised for her chemistry with onscreen love interest Detective Sergeant Kirsten Longacre (praised by Rose Leslie) with many dubbing her acting ‘incredible’ and the story ‘thrilling’.
The show, which returned to screens last night and is also available on BBC iPlayer, follows on from season 1, which was one of the biggest TV hits of 2021, with more than 12 million tuning in.
Season one was a cat-and-mouse thriller set aboard a Royal Navy nuclear submarine mired in espionage and murder, where Jones excelled as DCI Amy Silva, a detective-turned-action hero who battled evil submariners and her own sense of claustrophobia, and the gripping series won an International Emmy for Best Drama Series and was nominated for a BAFTA.
Now, there is no locked room element to the mystery, but instead DCI Silva and DS Longacre are transported to a Royal Air Force base in Scotland.
Suranne Jones has been branded phenomenal in her return to the role as Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva in BBC’s thriller Vigil (pictured in the show)
When a training exercise at the fictional Dundair air base to show off an attack drone to foreign buyers goes terribly wrong, several military personnel are killed.
Dougray Scott, Romola Garai and Alastair Mackenzie bring added star power as Air Force officers drawn in to the subsequent police investigation.
Viewers have been quick to brand Suranne a ‘modern day Anne Lister’ referring to her Gentleman Jack character.
‘I watched the first brilliant episodes of “Vigil” season 2. Gosh I miss Suranne Jones,’ said one.
‘That episode of #Vigil was phenomenal!! It’s so good to have Amy and Kirsten back. I’ve missed Silvacre so much. Loving how they’re relationship has progressed Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie have amazing chemistry together’.
‘Thought Vigil was pretty good. I can see the story developing nicely. Think its main strength though is the acting/partnership of Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie,’ said another.
‘This is so modern day Anne Lister. Honestly i’m screaming crying throwing up’ said one.
‘I thought #Vigil was very good…#BBC,’ wrote another.
The actress, 45, has been praised for her chemistry with onscreen love interest Detective Sergeant Kirsten Longacre (praised by Rose Leslie) with many dubbing her acting ‘incredible’ and the story ‘thrilling’. Rose and Suranne are pictured together
‘If you get the chance to watch season 2 of #Vigil, do it!’
Speaking to Weekend magazine ahead of the series, Suranne said she ‘loved doing the stunts’
‘There are some brilliant fight scenes this time.
‘I had four great stuntwomen for this series as we were filming in different locations. All of them allowed me to do as much as I could and we had a lot of fun – I ended up with lots of bruises but they were so worth it.
‘That’s the fun part for me, that I get to do that as well as portray the brightness and intelligence of Amy’s character.’
Amy finds herself out of her depth when her investigation crosses continents. The training exercise with the high-tech drones was intended as a showcase to attract buyers from the fictional Middle Eastern country of Wudyan.
Fans praised the chemistry between the two female leads
Air Marshall Marcus Grainger (Dougray Scott) oversees the demonstration, and when it ends in tragedy it throws a spotlight on possible espionage and the British military’s morally dubious relationship with an autocratic regime.
Grainger finds himself irritated when DCI Silva sticks her nose into the RAF’s interactions with Wudyan. ‘Their relationship is testing to say the least,’ says Dougray, 58.
‘Grainger sees Amy as someone who has a job to do, so he respects and admires that, while also being quite annoyed at her relentless investigations.’
Those investigations take DCI Silva to Wudyan, and the Middle Eastern setting marks a big change for the show. Gone are the tight shots inside a submarine, replaced with equally menacing open spaces where there’s nowhere to hide.
‘We were in Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco, so there’s a completely different aesthetic to the first series,’ Romola Garai, 41, who plays Eliza Russell, Acting Squadron Leader at the Wudyan air base and another formidable woman who’s had to step up into a position of power added to Weekend.
‘We’ve got these vast desert landscapes of openness and heat haze, with people disappearing into a massive horizon rather than being locked up in a tiny submarine.
Romola Garai (pictured), 41, who plays Eliza Russell, Acting Squadron Leader at the Wudyan air base and another formidable woman who’s had to step up into a position of power
‘It’s a totally different experience for the viewer as we explore a different world within the military.’
Romola explains that while DCI Silva and Russell are on opposite sides, they find common ground. ‘If Amy has a guardian on the base when she gets to Wudyan, it’s Eliza Russell.
‘To an extent she’s suspicious of Amy – she’s an outsider coming in to investigate this crime – but at a point in the story we see them turn to each other for help. They’re strong women in positions of power and clash at times, but there’s camaraderie between them.’
As DCI Silva puts her own safety on the line in search of the truth, she knows the stakes are higher than ever. She and DI Longacre are now in a committed relationship and expecting a baby, while the couple also look after Poppy, the daughter of Silva’s late boyfriend.
‘We left series one with Amy and Kirsten picking up Poppy after the trauma of the submarine,’ explains Suranne. ‘We saw that they’d decided to give their relationship a go.
‘In this series Kirsten is pregnant, they’re very happy together and very much in love. So we see Amy in a very secure place in her life.’
Suranne adds the chance to work with Rose again was a big draw. ‘We got on so well, so to come back and have our relationship both on and off screen be more settled was such a joy,’ she says.
And just as in the first series, Rose was pregnant during filming (she had her first child, a son, with her Game Of Thrones co-star husband Kit Harington in 2021). Rose has spoken of throwing up between scenes while filming series one, but her bump was hidden from view.
Suranne Jones, Rose Leslie and Dougray Scott attend a screening of new BBC Drama “Vigil” Series 2 at BFI Southbank on November 27
This time around it was incorporated into the plot. ‘I told the producers I was pregnant even before my first trimester was over, purely because I wanted to give them as much time as possible to adapt the storyline into the script that was already written,’ says Rose, 36.
‘They were fantastic and incredibly supportive throughout – particularly shooting me in the first seven weeks of filming. They’ve really weaved it into the plotlines seamlessly, as it almost echoes the first series where Amy departs to investigate and Kirsten stays put to work on the investigation on the ground.’
Suranne loved acting opposite a pregnant Rose. ‘It was lovely, as Rose really had the bump that we see in the series,’ says mum-of-one Suranne.
‘Even when she had to go and have her real baby, the sound department did this wonderful thing: they recorded Rose’s dialogue and when I had phone calls with her they would play her on the phone, so it felt like she was there.’
Vigil will once again take viewers on a wild ride with maverick DCI Silva as she investigates the murky world of military drones, arms deals, politics and warfare. ‘It’s brave to tackle the issues and ask some of the questions you see in the series,’ says Suranne.
‘It’s done in a way that keeps you in a popular blockbuster entertainment show but is really intelligent and thoughtful about what’s going on in the world.’
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