TRUE confessions

Nicola Walker returns as a marine detective who reveals her inner-most thoughts to the camera

- STEVEN PERKINS

NEW CRIME DRAMA

Annika

Wednesday, 9pm, Alibi 

As we discovered in the first season of Alibi’s hit crime drama Annika, Detective Inspector Annika Strandhed has a penchant of revealing her thoughts to viewers by speaking directly to the audience through the camera.

This habit played a pivotal role in the finale of the series – recently reshown on BBC1 – as Annika (The Split’s Nicola Walker) confessed to viewers that her colleague DS Michael McAndrews (Jamie Sives) is the father of her teenage daughter Morgan (Silvie Furneaux).

Michael, however, remains oblivious – and as TV&Satellite Week joins Walker on set in the Scottish town of Greenock on a sunny September morning, she confirms that this secret is weighing heavily on her character’s mind in season two.

‘We pick up approximately two minutes later – Annika’s just told viewers that Michael is the father, then walked straight out of the pub,’ says Walker. ‘She’s normally very honest, talking down the barrel of the lens to everyone. She knows what she should do, but she prevaricates with telling Michael the truth. She uses the viewers as a therapist, essentially. She’s in denial for quite a lot of the season.’

Fortunately for the detective, a timely interruption arrives in the shape of a new investigation. A phone containing footage of a brutal drowning has been handed into the police, so Annika’s Marine Homicide Unit is right back on the job.

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‘They’ve had no sleep and they’re pushing straight on with another case,’ says Walker.