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

Suranne Jones has been hailed as phenomenal in her return to the role of Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva in BBC thriller The Vigil.

The 45-year-old Manchester-born actress was praised for her chemistry with on-screen love interest Detective Sergeant Kirsten Longacre (praised by Rose Leslie), with many calling her performance “incredible” and the story “gripping”.

The show, which returned to screens last night and is also available on BBC iPlayer, is a continuation of the first series, which was one of the biggest TV hits of 2021, with more than 12 million viewers.

The first season was a cat-and-mouse thriller set aboard a Royal Navy nuclear submarine mired in espionage and assassination, with Jones excelling as Chief Inspector Amy Silva, a detective-turned-action heroine who battled evil submariners and her its own sense of claustrophobia, and the gripping series won an International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series and was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

There is now no locked room element to the mystery, but instead DCI Silva and Sergeant Longacre are transported to an RAF base in Scotland.

When a training exercise at the fictional Dundeir Air Base to demonstrate an attack drone to foreign buyers went wrong, several troops were killed.

Dougray Scott, Romola Garai and Alastair MacKenzie bring additional star power as Air Force officers are involved in the ensuing police investigation.

Viewers were quick to call Suranne a “modern-day Anne Lister”, referring to her character Gentleman Jack.

“I watched the first brilliant episodes of the second season of Vigil. Damn I miss Suranne Jones,” one said.

“This episode of #Vigil was phenomenal!! It’s good to have Amy and Kirsten back. I missed Silvacr so much. I love how their relationship is developing. Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie have amazing chemistry with each other.”

“I thought Vigil was pretty good. I see the story progressing well. I think its main strength is the play/partnership of Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie,” said another.

“This is such a modern Anne Lister. Honestly, I’m screaming, crying, throwing up,” one said.

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

“If you get a chance to watch season two of #Vigil, do it!”

Speaking to Weekend magazine ahead of the series, Suranne said she “loves doing stunts.”

“There are some brilliant fight scenes this time around.

“For this series, I had four amazing stunt girls because we were filming in different locations. They all let 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 worth it.

“That’s the most fun thing for me, that I get to do that and also portray the vibrancy and intelligence of Amy’s character.”

Amy finds herself confused as her investigation crosses continents. The exercise, using high-tech drones, was intended as a demonstration to attract buyers from the fictional Middle Eastern country of Wudian.

Air Marshal Marcus Granger (Dougray Scott) oversees the demonstration, and when it ends in tragedy, it draws attention to possible espionage and the British military’s morally dubious relationship with the autocratic regime.

Granger becomes annoyed when Chief Inspector Silva pokes his nose into the RAF’s interactions with Udyan. “Their relationship is testing, to say the least,” says Dugray, 58.

“Granger sees Amy as someone who has a job, so he respects and admires that, but at the same time he is quite annoyed by her relentless investigation.”

These investigations lead Chief Inspector Silva to Wudian, and the Middle East heralds a big change for the series. The footage of inside the submarine has disappeared, replaced by equally menacing open spaces with nowhere to hide.

“We were in Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco, so the aesthetic is completely different from the first series,” Romola Garai, 41, who plays Eliza Russell, acting squadron commander at Wudian Air Base and another formidable woman forced to join job title. Power position added to Weekend.

“We have these vast desert landscapes, open and hot, with people disappearing into a vast horizon rather than being trapped in a tiny submarine.

“It’s a completely different experience for the viewer as we explore a different world in the military.”

Romola explains that although Chief Inspector Silva and Russell are on opposite sides, they find common ground. “If Amy will have a guardian at the base when she gets to Wudian, it will be Eliza Russell.”

“To some extent she is suspicious of Amy – she is an outsider who has come to investigate this crime – but at some point in the story we see them turn to each other for help. These are strong women in leadership positions and they clash from time to time, but there is a camaraderie between them.”

DCI Silva risks his own safety as he searches for the truth and knows the stakes are higher than ever. She and Inspector Longacre are now in a committed relationship and expecting a baby, while the couple are also looking after Poppy, the daughter of Silva’s late boyfriend.

“We left the first episode with Amy and Kirsten picking up Poppy after her submarine injury,” explains Suranne. “We saw that they decided to give their relationship a boost.

“In this series, Kirsten is pregnant and they are very happy together and very 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 deal for her. “We got along so well that it was such a joy to come back and make our relationship both on and off screen more established,” she says.

And, as in the first series, Rose was pregnant during filming (she gave birth to her first child, a son, with husband Game of Thrones co-star Kit Harington in 2021). Rose revealed she vomited between scenes while filming the first series, but her bump was hidden from view.

This time it was included in the plot. “I told the producers I was pregnant before my first trimester was over, simply because I wanted to give them as much time as possible to adapt the storyline to the script they had already written,” says Rose, 36.

“They were fantastic and incredibly supportive throughout the entire process, especially during the first seven weeks of filming. They really wove that into the storylines seamlessly because it almost echoes the first episode where Amy goes off to investigate and Kirsten stays behind to work on the investigation on site.”

Suranne loved playing with pregnant Rose. “It was great because Rose actually had the baby bump that we see on the show,” says mum-of-one Suranne.

“Even when she had to give birth to the real baby, the sound department did a wonderful thing: They recorded Rose’s dialogue, and when I talked to her on the phone, they played it back on the phone, so it seemed like she was there.”

Vigil will once again take viewers on a wild ride with maverick DCI Silva as she explores the murky world of military drones, arms deals, politics and war. “It’s the courage to take on problems and ask some of the questions that you see in the show,” says Suranne.

“It’s done in a way that keeps you in the mainstream blockbuster entertainment show, but is also really smart and thoughtful about what’s going on in the world.”