Nicola Walker returns tonight in Series 2 of ITV’s superior cold case crime drama ‘Unforgotten’.
As in the impressive first series, she teams up with Sanjeev Bhaskar to play detectives faced with the task of identifying a body long since hidden, and finding out how this victim met their grisly fate.
This time around, it’s a body tucked into a suitcase found at the bottom of the River Lea in north east London, with the only clues belonging to a watch and a vintage pager - remember them?
Nicola Walker once again shines off the screen in her lead role of Cassie, but what else do we know of this talented actress, who we saw over Christmas in ‘Last Tango in Halifax’, and her returning character? She tells us…
What will we see happen to Cassie in Series 2?
“There are some little hints to Cassie’s past that will appear, blink and you’ll miss them. She only reveals them when she thinks it will help someone else to know. These facts come out through the context of her job.”
How’s her relationship with her bereaved father progressing?
“The very small things between them have ramifications - he’s more interested in moving on, and it becomes more about how Cassie copes with him having a new life, with new women in it. He moves on, but Cassie does become increasingly concerned by his behaviour.”
Nicola is soon to face the prospect of seeing her child grow up and leave home, just like her TV character.
“I’m not looking forward to it. I have friends whose children are heading off into the big wide world, and I’m dreading it. I hope I deal with it as well as Cassie.”
On becoming the face of 2015, starring in two primetime crime dramas at the same time, the first series of ‘Unforgotten’ on ITV and ‘River’ on BBC One.
“I’d been out in New York. I returned after five months and everyone was talking about Unforgotten and River. It wasn’t idea, but it’s amazing how quickly it happens. You don’t have as much control as maybe it appears.
“I’ve been acting for a very long time, but nobody noticed - I thought I’d got away with it, and then those two projects came out at the same time.”
On not worrying about it...
“But I have to ask myself, do I not take this job because it’s too similar in genre? They’re both excellent, the kind of work as an actor you crave.”
On the appeal of ‘Unforgotten’...
“It’s not really a whodunnit. I think with the first series, our writer Chris Lang took viewers to a place they weren’t expecting. Hopefully, he’s done the same again.”
Will we get a Series 3?
“We’d happily make a third series, it’s whether people still like it, and it’s up to our writer Chris. We knew he had this story (Series 2) in him last year, but we don’t know anything else for now. Fingers crossed.”
‘Unforgotten’ returns on ITV at 9pm on Thursday 5 January.