Yahoo News Doctor Foster series 2 is "all out war"
There's nothing worse than a lacklustre sequel to a surprise hit. But the early signs are that series two of BBC One's Doctor Foster will be anything but.
The first episode alone ramps up the tension to almost unbearable levels, as Gemma Foster (Suranne Jones) is reunited with her cheating ex-husband Simon (Bertie Carvel) two years after their marriage fell apart in explosive fashion.
But why did the first series need a follow-up? Where is the 5-part sequel heading? And will Simon finally pay the price for his misdeeds?
Jones, Carvel and writer Mike Bartlett opened up to press including Digital Spy about what to expect and why they decided to return to Parminster.
"It's got its own reason to exist"
"I've said before that I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to do a second series," Jones admits. "Because it was a standalone piece. To do a follow-up just because something was successful... I didn't feel that that was the right thing.
"But Mike and I met and we questioned, 'Have we ever seen a couple on television dealing with divorce, the aftermath, when everyone else has turned their backs and got on with their lives?'.
"You have to have this person in your life, because you've got a child together. It's very dark. Very uncomfortable – as in, how much you f**king hate someone and you have to be in their life. We talked about The War of the Roses and Kramer vs. Kramer and that kind of thing. But actually, on TV, it hasn't been dealt with."
The second series, Bartlett says, has "its own good reason to exist" – in fact, he hopes to have silenced the naysayers by the end of the first episode.
"People asked, 'Why do they need to do a second series?' So I felt like episode one had to counter that. My aim was that if this landed on the desk of the commissioning editor of the BBC as a new show, they would still want to make it."
"I really care that everyone who watched it [the first time] isn't disappointed that we made another one," picks up Jones. "Because as soon as we announced that we were making another one, people did kind of go, 'Oh, no, God…'
"I just hope that when they see it, people realise why we thought it was important to tell this story."
"It's less espionage, and more all-out war"
Barlett says that while the first series of Doctor Foster saw Gemma and Simon "circling each other" – he hiding his infidelity, her hiding that she knew – the follow-up sees the pair at loggerheads and being "very open about their feelings".
"We're in a slightly different world," he explains. "It's less espionage, and more all-out war."
"Gemma had a mental breakdown in the first series – that's not where she is now," affirms Jones. "The first one was about her losing her friends and her stability, and a life that she had for 15 years.
"The second series is her anger and hatred coming out. The affair was explosive, whereas this one is tightly coiled – like, just wound tight. So it's just a different feel, I think."
"Simon's coming back with a plan and an agenda"
Sympathy for Simon? Surely not. But Bertie Carvel hints that we may start to see events from perspectives other than just Gemma's in the new series.
"What made the first one so compelling was that she's driving the story, and actually, Simon's completely reactive. He's just desperately trying to spin plates and juggle everything – keep everybody smiling and put the genie back in the bottle.
"I think this time around, Simon is… he's gone away and has done some work on himself and has re-armoured himself. He's coming back with a plan and an agenda. That definitely wasn't the case the last time around."
"What's the comeuppance for this character?"
Simon escaped Parminster with his pregnant mistress Kate (Jodie Comer) at the end of the first series, leaving Gemma to pick up the pieces. Once the divorced couple are reunited, is there fresh justice to be meted out?
"The notion of, 'What's the comeuppance for this character?' is absolutely a driver in what Mike's writing this time round," Carvel hints. "The notion of culpability and blame and who wins, and who should win... these are all the questions that I think allow us a second series, and some of them will be answered, or at least… they'll certainly be taken on."
"The animosity is not going to do brilliant things for Tom"
Poor, unfortunate Tom Foster (Tom Taylor) – the schoolboy previously ended up caught in the middle of his parents' messy break-up, and the ongoing hostilities between them will take their toll on the teen.
"At the beginning, he and Gemma are doing alright," Bartlett says. "But inevitably, the animosity between his parents is not going to do brilliant things for him. So, that's one of the things that we explore."
"There's a few set pieces..."
Specifically, there'll be some major sequences in series two that rival the first year's dinner party from hell. "There's definitely one in episode 1, which is brilliant," Jones enthuses. "And there's an amazing one in episode 5, which is just three people."
"It ends in a place that's quite uncomfortable"
With Gemma on the rampage and a re-energised Simon back with a vengeance, we can't see things ending well.
"Simon cares deeply what people think of him," hints Carvel. "He's desperate. His self-esteem is fragile and he needs people to think a lot of him. That's part of where his weakness comes from.
"It's really dark, and this series takes us to some dark places, with Simon."
Will the psychological violence escalate into the physical again? How far is Gemma capable of going?
"Series 2 is about seeing the full extent of what she's capable of," Bartlett explains. "As a writer, I realised that maybe I don't know what she's capable of, and that's something to explore."
"By episode 5, which I've just seen… oh God," says Jones. "It ends in a place where it's still quite uncomfortable, and hopefully the audience will be glad that we've ended it there."
Doctor Foster returns to BBC One on Tuesday (September 5) at 9pm.
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