“It was possibly one of the most challenging things I’ve done professionally”: Sophie Rundle on After the Flood season two

Returning for a second season, After the Flood resumes its community-rooted procedural mystery with raised stakes, pushing its characters into murkier waters. Set a year after the upheavals of the first series, the new episodes find detective Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle) juggling the demands of new motherhood with the authority of her newly earned rank, all while pursuing justice against Sergeant Mackie (Nicholas Gleaves) in a town still uneasy beneath the surface. The crisis may have passed, but its aftershocks linger, shaping relationships and loyalties in ways that are far from resolved.

Ahead of the show’s return on ITVX, Rundle spoke to The Upcoming about Jo’s evolution – both the subtle shifts and more visible changes – since season one, her instinctive process of stepping back into the role, and the unexpected challenges of filming the finale.

Hi Sophie, it’s so lovely to speak with you today. To start things off, would you like to tell us what audiences can expect from season two of After the Flood?

Season two takes place a year after the end of season one. Obviously, this is a sort of living, breathing community, so it just carries on with these people’s lives a year after the events of the first season. Jo and Pat have a one-year-old daughter now, and they are separated – I think the fallout of everything that was revealed at the end of season one has impacted their relationship. They’re trying to co-parent their daughter, and also trying to work together to bring a case against Mackie and ultimately bring him down. But they can’t pull the trigger on that until they’re totally sure it will be enough to stop him and, hopefully, protect Pat to a degree from his involvement. They’re walking this tightrope of trying to operate in secret to bring Mackie down, while Mackie is still operating at large in the community and at the centre of everything, so there’s a lot of strain. On the surface, everything is fine, but underneath, there’s a lot of turbulence.

What was your first reaction to reading the scripts?

For season one, I was really excited by who Jo is – as a captain and as a protagonist. I thought it was so cool to follow this pregnant woman who runs very much towards danger rather than away from it. I also loved how it sprawled out into this community of really individual, well-drawn characters. I loved all the different dynamics, all the stuff with Molly – there’s some great mother-daughter material there – and with everybody, really. With season two, I thought it was a really robust response to season one. Often a second series can come as a bit of a surprise and feel tacked on, but this didn’t. It felt strong, it really carried on the story, but took it to new places authentically. I think it’s a really great British procedural mystery drama – we do those really well. The writing is smart, and the other actors are amazing, so it was a no-brainer.

Do you think season two developed its own distinct identity from season one?

Rather than having a distinct identity, I think it sits quite cohesively with season one, which I think is really important. It feels part of the same world. It complements season one but also takes a step forward. You want to feel on familiar ground as an audience – you want to come back and think, “I liked season one, I want to revisit that” – but then it pushes into another room of the story. I think it did that really well. It feels like a very authentic continuation of the first series.

On the subject of continuation, did your familiarity with Jo as a character make playing her easier or more challenging this time around?

I think it made it easier, because it kind of sticks in your body. Actors have that strange thing where you might forget the name of someone you see all the time, but you can recite a monologue you did at drama school. It gets into your body and lives somewhere in the recesses of your brain. When you come back to it, you think, “Oh, I remember this.” Often the first exercise back is the costume fitting or hair and make-up, and it was all the same team, which was amazing. Carolyn, our costume designer, had us trying new looks and none quite worked. She said, “I do have your boots from season one – do you want to try them on?” As soon as I put them on, I thought, “There she is, that’s who she is. ” That really helped.  We had a lot of the same team, which was very helpful. Having the same crew, and the same director for the first block made it feel like very familiar territory and made it easy to slot back into the story and the character.

Jo returns as a newly promoted detective and a new mother this season. How did that affect the way you approached her, particularly in terms of professional competence and vulnerability?

Being a qualified detective rather than a trainee gives her more authority, which gives her more confidence. Not that she’s ever really needed confidence – she’s remarkably confident. But there’s definitely less naivety and less of that kind of youthful inexperience after she’s been through so much in season one. And I think you toughen up when you become a parent – that has given her more gravitas. She still has that sparky, slight madness to her, which I quite like, but there’s more confidence and stability there, which is very useful because in season two, she’s playing in the big leagues. She can’t get away with things because she’s just a trainee detective. When she makes a choice, she has to stand by it, and obviously, the stakes are higher. So I think she’s definitely matured.

Jo and Molly’s mother-daughter relationship was a highlight of season one. How has it evolved now that Jo is also a mother?

It’s nice that you say that, because it was for me that dynamic was a real highlight for me to read on the page, and then to play with Lorraine. There’s something about her that I find so fun – she has this really fizzy, exciting energy. I just think she’s a brilliant actor. So those scenes, it’s that lovely thing that just kind of works. Sometimes it’s chemistry – we always think of chemistry as a kind of romantic pursuit, but it’s not. It’s about when you vibe with somebody. And so I love Lorraine, and I love the way those characters are written. There’s a fluidity there that really works. And then it’s a gift, really, because Molly, as a grandmother, is just exactly what you would imagine her to be. It was just fun. Those scenes are so easy to do, so fun to play, and that kind of amazing thing that they have where they’re mother and daughter, but they almost have this sibling dynamic still at play, that if we row with each other, they’re the ones to piss us off. Then there’s so much warmth and love there. I really love doing those scenes.

What was the most challenging scene for you to film this season?

The finale was very, very challenging. Without giving anything away, they did a big, explosive kind of finale that required a lot, and it was possibly one of the most challenging things I’ve done professionally. Just having the kind of stamina and doing this job is hard enough, and then when you do it with a baby, it’s extra hard. It was trying to find the stamina to balance my life as a mother, and then be a professional person as well. And there’s a lot of stamina required, just from a point of view of being on set every day and needing to know your lines, especially in something like this, where there is a natural element of exposition that is required. So you have to be so on top of who you’re talking about, and how you’re imparting information to the audience, which requires a lot of mental dexterity. And then when you do a stunt or something more physical, it requires something very different. It’s just spinning a lot of plates, but it is a really lovely job. It was a really, really brilliant, supportive, talented crew, and that makes a world of difference.

If After the Flood were to return for a third season, what would you be most excited to explore?

I like seeing Jo grow in experience and confidence, because she’s tenacious to the point of madness, but she’s also quite brilliant. I love when she figures something out – that’s always really fun to play. I’d love to start with her and her mum, I love seeing that side of her. I love playing Jo, she’s a great detective, but Jo as a woman I find equally compelling. If it came back for a third season, I’d like to see her get into more trouble and then get herself out of it.

Christina Yang

After the Flood season two is released on ITVX on 19^th January 2026.

Watch the trailer for After the Flood season two here: