Suranne Jones has been hailed as ‘phenomenal’ in ‘thrilling’ return of BBC drama Vigil, as viewers compare her character to Gentleman Jack and praise her chemistry with on-screen love interest Rose Leslie

Suranne Jones is said to be phenomenal in her return to the role of Chief Inspector Amy Silva in the BBC thriller Vigil.

The Manchester-born actress, 45, has been praised for her chemistry with on-screen love interest Detective Sergeant Kirsten Longacre (praised by Rose Leslie), with many calling her acting ‘incredible’ and the story ‘thrilling’.

The show, which returned to screens last night and is also available on BBC iPlayer, is a follow-up to season 1, one of the biggest TV hits of 2021, with more than 12 million viewers.

Season one was a cat-and-mouse thriller set aboard a Royal Navy nuclear submarine embroiled in espionage and assassination, in which Jones excelled as DCI Amy Silva, a detective turned action hero who battled evil submarines and her own sense of claustrophobia. the gripping series won an International Emmy for Best Drama Series and was nominated for a BAFTA.

Now there is no locked room involved in the mystery, instead DCI Silva and DS Longacre are transported to a Royal Air Force base in Scotland.

When an exercise at the fictional Dundair air base to show off an attack drone to foreign buyers goes horribly wrong, several soldiers are killed.

Dougray Scott, Romola Garai and Alastair Mackenzie provide additional star power as air force officers are drawn into the ensuing police investigation.

Viewers are quick to label Suranne as a “modern Anne Lister,” referring to her Gentleman Jack character.

‘I watched the first brilliant episodes of season 2 of ‘Vigil’. Gosh I miss Suranne Jones,” said one.

‘That episode of #Vigil was phenomenal!! It’s so good to have Amy and Kirsten back. I missed Silvacre so much. I love how their relationship has progressed. Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie have great chemistry together’.

“I thought Vigil was pretty good. I see the story developing nicely. Think the biggest strength though is the acting/partnership of Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie,” said another.

‘This is so modern Anne Lister. Honestly, I’m screaming, I’m going to throw up,” said one.

“I thought #Vigil was really good…#BBC,” wrote another.

“If you get a 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 around.

“I had four amazing stuntwomen on this series because we were filming in different locations. They all made me do as much as I could and we had a lot of fun – I ended up with a lot of bruises, but they were so worth it.

“That’s what I like about it, that I get to do that and at the same time portray the clarity and intelligence of Amy’s character.”

Amy gets out of trouble as 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.

Air Marshall Marcus Grainger (Dougray Scott) oversees the demonstration, and when it ends in tragedy, possible espionage and the British military’s morally questionable relationship with an autocratic regime are spotlighted.

Grainger becomes irritated when DCI Silva pokes her nose into the RAF’s interactions with Wudyan. “Their relationship has been tested, to say the least,” said Dougray, 58.

“Grainger sees Amy as someone who has a job to do, so he respects and admires that, while also being quite annoyed by her relentless investigation.”

Those investigations bring DCI Silva to Wudyan, and the Middle Eastern setting marks a big change for the show. Gone are the tight shots in a submarine, replaced by equally menacing open spaces with nowhere to hide.

‘We were in Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco, so there’s a completely different aesthetic from the first series,’ Romola Garai, 41, who plays Eliza Russell, acting squadron leader at Wudyan air base and another formidable woman who had to move into a position of power added to Weekend.

‘We have these vast desert landscapes of openness and heat haze, where people disappear into a vast horizon instead of being trapped in a small submarine.

“It’s a completely 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 base when she gets to Wudyan, it’s Eliza Russell.

“To some extent she distrusts Amy – she’s an outsider who comes to investigate this crime – but at one point in the story we see them asking each other for help. They are strong women in positions of power who sometimes clash, but there is camaraderie between them.’

As DCI Silva risks her own safety in search of the truth, she knows the stakes are higher than ever. She and DI Longacre are now in a committed relationship and are expecting a baby, while the couple are also caring for 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,” Suranne explains. ‘We saw that they had decided to give their relationship a chance.

‘In this series Kirsten is pregnant, they are very happy together and very much in love. So we see Amy in a very safe place in her life.”

Suranne adds that the opportunity to work with Rose again was a big draw. “We got along so well, so it was a pleasure to come back and continue to grow our relationship both on and off screen,” she says.

And 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 about throwing up between scenes during filming of series one, but her stomach was hidden from view.

This time it was worked into the plot. “I told the producers I was pregnant before my first trimester was over, purely because I wanted to give them as much time as possible to adapt the storyline to the script that had already been written,” says 36-year-old Rose.

‘They were fantastic and incredibly supportive throughout, especially during the first seven weeks of filming. They’ve really woven it into the storylines seamlessly as it’s almost an echo of the first series where Amy goes off to investigate and Kirsten stays on site working on the investigation.”

Suranne loved acting opposite a pregnant Rose. “It was wonderful because Rose really had the belly that we see in the series,” says mother-of-one Suranne.

“Even when she had to have her real baby, the sound department did something amazing: they recorded Rose’s dialogue and when I called her they would play her on the phone, so it felt like she was there.”

Vigil once again takes viewers on a wild ride with maverick DCI Silva as she explores the murky world of military drones, weapons transactions, politics and warfare. “It’s brave to tackle the issues and ask some of the questions you see in the series,” Suranne says.

“It’s done in a way that keeps you in a hit blockbuster entertainment show, but is very intelligent and attentive to what’s going on in the world.”