“Just when you get comfortable with it, it changes and you get knocked sideways”: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Armstrong and Conor MacNeill on The Tourist season two

This brand new season of the BBC drama series The Tourist takes viewers away from where we left the story in Australia and moves the narrative on by 18 months to unfurl in Ireland this time round.

Elliot (Jamie Dornan) still hasn’t regained his memory after a violent episode left him with amnesia. But his friendship with the police officer Helen Chambers (Danielle Armstrong) has deepened. With romance now on the cards, the pair travel together to his native Ireland in search of answers and people who could help piece together the fragments of his past. Unfortunately, though, Elliot starts his journey under a shroud of violence as he is kidnapped, tortured and made to face up to a past he doesn’t recognise. In the meantime, Helen is left distraught and enlists the help of the small local investigative team to help track him down.

The series writers Jack and Harry Williams have managed to add more layers to this intriguing drama alongside some brilliant new cast additions and The Upcoming had the pleasure of speaking to Dornan, Armstrong and Conor MacNeill about this new chapter of the show.

How did you feel when you found out that a second season of The Tourist had been commissioned?

Jamie Dornan: My thinking was, if we are doing this, where are we going? Because it was a bit difficult to go to Australia and if we are doing it again so soon then I have three kids and it’s a big thing to do that and the idea wasn’t hugely appealing. But luckily Jack and Harry said they’d do something closer to home and I approved of that pretty quickly too. We knew there was a want for it, because there was a big reaction from the public here, and certainly in Australia and the States a bit. So, if there’s an appetite for it, a good story to tell and it was closer to home, then I was in. I read that first script and I thought it was mad and confusing so there were enough good elements there.

Danielle Armstrong: I remember talking to Harry pretty early on and he was saying they’d had some thoughts about Canada and I remember saying, what about Ireland, that would make sense because he’s Irish. I really wanted to go to Ireland so I was campaigning for Ireland early on. So I read the draft pretty early on, well before it got approved and it took a few months from then.

What can you tell us about Elliot and Helen’s relationship at the start of this. Where have they been for the past year or so?

JD: Everywhere. Living their best life.

DA: Literally everywhere. Apparently they just travelled around the world.

JD: I think it’s important that we see them as this happy unit. Two people coming from complicated situations. You breaking away from the constraints of Ethan and everything that’s holding you down, and with Elliot everything about the madness of his past catching up with him and all these unanswered questions. That they’re able to find happiness with each other and forget about all the chaos we’ve seen and travel. I don’t know where they got the money though.

DA: No me neither. But it’s like a fairytale, it’s a bit dreamlike and then reality hits because it has to.

Can you talk about the bond that Elliot and Helen share? Do you think they’ve taught each other a lot about life?

JD: Elliot is scratching around trying to find some good in his life. Everything that has been revealed to him in the first series has been horrid. So he’s thinking, what’s going on and what can he cling to? What hope does he have? Helen represents that hope. There’s a real want for him to have that goodness, that stability, and love in his life. We’ve got a really easy bond and love working with each other, so slipping back into that was really fun and didn’t feel like work, which was a nice thing. But you may think differently.

DA: It was okay… No, it was honestly great. From Helen’s perspective, in the same way he needs something good, he’s also the only man who’s accepted and loved her for who she is. So I think they both get something from the other that’s very pure. But then there’s all the other shit that’s gone on. Working with Jamie was great on both seasons. It was very easy. There’s always going to be laughter and I’m up for that.

There are huge moments of guilt for Elliot as things that have happened in the past start to be revealed. Are there any points where he starts feeling culpable for bringing Helen into his world?

JD: Quite possibly yes. I think that’s emphasised in the second series a bit. Moments where it’s the last thing he wants for her actually. But it kind of was Helen’s idea to go back to Ireland, to take that jump, as much as I was open to it, it was a monumental shit show of stuff happening. Some really bleak revelations and moments of, “This isn’t good, we shouldn’t have done this.”

DA: It was a terrible idea.

JD: But there’s also still a want to find answers. But as you say, there’s this guilt hanging over him of how could he have brought her to the place where he doesn’t know what will happen because he can’t remember. But the only thing he does know is this horrific thing that he’s done, and how can he reconcile with that and what can he find out about himself that can help him understand why he was brought to that place, which is what we explore in the second series and it’s really interesting.

The first episode drops on New Year’s Day. How does it feel to kick off everyone’s 2024?

JD: I think something that played a role in the success of the first series is the 1^st January date. There’s a reason why that’s like the date that everyone wants on television. Most people stay in on that night, most people are hungover. There’s a real comfort about having a night in and I’m not even going to scroll down. BBC One is the first hit. There’s a big push to try and get that date again, it being so well received and the figures being what they were. The show it is, it’s a bit of a smack in the face in a good way to kick off the new year.

What can you tell us about the family rivalry at the core of this season?

DA: What can we tell you? That’s the question.

CM: It’s really bad.

JD: Much of it is beautifully revealed through Conor and his portrayal of Detective Ruairi Slater early on.

CM: It’s a very deep history. It’s long-standing and multi-generational too.

DA: He’s got all the answers basically and we somehow all become embroiled in it accidentally.

The last series was so exciting and captivating. Can viewers look forward to it stepping up this year?

JD: I think you’re trying to offer them something different. I do genuinely think by proxy of it being in Ireland that it feels like a different show. You’re offering up something different. Jack and Harry have a very particular way of writing and blending genre that is a bit of a headache at the beginning performance-wise of where to hang your hat, but then once you get comfortable with the rhythms of it, it’s really fun. I think the fact that the story takes place prominently in Ireland, that in itself brings with it a different type of tone and different humour. I have to say Jack and Harry, as two English lads, write Irish humour really well. What was so brilliant about the first series was a lot of the smaller characters have been cast so cleverly. For some of them, they haven’t done a lot of acting before and they’d turn up and elevate the scenes. More mad stuff happens, too. Just when you get comfortable with it, it changes and you get knocked sideways.

Ezelle Alblas

The Tourist season two is released on BBC One and BBC iPlayer 1^st January 2024.

Watch the trailer for The Tourist season two here: