She Does Some Terrible Things?

Anna Friel on why the stakes are even higher this time for her troubled cop...

- Sean Marland

NEW CRIME DRAMA

Marcella

MONDAY / ITV / 9.00PM

Female investigators have been at the centre of some of our very best TV dramas in recent years. Olivia Colman brought depth and empathy to Broadchurch and Sarah Lancashire held nothing back in Happy Valley, but the darkest performance of them all has surely been Anna Friel’s turn as DS Marcella Backland.

The first series of this crime thriller, which aired in 2016, saw the London detective on the trail of a serial killer while questioning her own sanity following a string of violent blackouts – or ‘fugues’. But now Marcella is back with a new case that promises to be even more chilling.

In this week’s opening episode, the body of a nine-year-old boy, missing for four years, is found encased in the wall between two flats. Yet this grisly murder is just the start of an investigation that widens to include a host of shady characters and tangled plotlines.

As TV Times sits down with our cover star Anna, 41, to discuss the second series, she tells us about the challenges of taking on such a demanding role – and how she smuggled her dog on set!

How do we find Marcella this time round?

It’s a few months after the events of the first series and she seems OK, considering her husband Jason [Nicholas Pinnock] has run off with a woman half her age and her kids aren’t living with her!