This coming week the second series of The Tunnel starts up on Sky Atlantic. The first series, starring Stephan Sillane and Clémence Poésy, was more or less an Anglo/French version of The Bridge, and it didn’t stray too far from its original Scandi inspiration. This time around, ben Richards has constructed a brand new story that is a departure from the source material, which is a good thing. We managed to get hold of an interview with Clémence, and you can read it after the jump.
The Killing Times: Set the scene for Elise as we begin the new series…
Clémence Poésy: We are one year on from the events of the last series and three main things have changed for her. She has had to take her old boss’s job, so she is in a slightly different professional position I guess this time; she’s taking managerial courses to try to manage her team differently; and she’s been in a relationship all this time, ever since the last series ended.
TKT: And she is in a happier place?
CP: She’s in a very happy place – she’s just enjoying spending time with someone. I think maybe her relationship with Karl has opened her up to the possibility of other relationships.
TKT: Who is Elise seeing?
CP: She’s living with the waiter that she met in the first series, who sort of became her boyfriend. As unlikely as it seemed at first! All I will say is that she might fall in love with someone else during the series, and for Elise that’s probably the first time she’ll have been in love. She’s very happy with this guy [the waiter] at the outset but I think she’s probably not really in love with him.
TKT: What’s the mechanism that brings Karl and Elise back together?
CP: A child has been found alone in a vehicle in the tunnel. Her parents have disappeared. Elise comes over because it’s a French family. And because of a number of factors, Elise is asked to go to check what’s happening. She happens to find Karl, who is now working in victim protection and is dealing with that little girl. I don’t think she’s expecting to see him. They haven’t seen each other for a year.
TKT: What are their feelings on being reunited?
CP: Yes, she feels guilt and all sorts of things, but also real happiness. I think she’s been missing him, more than the process of working with him.
TKT: What made you want to come back and do another series?
CP: I have really fond memories of working last series and working with Stephen. It is a different relationship to the one you have on a film, where everyone’s sort of following the person who usually wrote it and is directing it. It’s quite nice to find a character again that you’ve grown to really, really like.
TKT: How has it been for both of you to return to the Kent coast to film?
CP: It’s lovely but it is cold. You can always tell the new members of the cast because they’re not wearing as many layers!
TKT: What have been some of the highlights from filming?
CP: The biggest thing was there’s this massive hangar near Margate where there was a plane almost entirely recreated out of parts from a crash. One day I came in early ready for rehearsal and it was just really weird to see this enormous, creepy thing they’d built.
TKT: What were your thoughts on the first series?
CP: I didn’t watch it all because I thought if I saw the first series I might be critical about what I had done and change things for the second series, which would be wrong. I did see the first two episodes which I really, really loved. I loved their rhythms and how just very unique it was. My grandmother gave me the best reaction: she told me that in future I should try to get characters that are a bit nicer.
The Tunnel: Sabotage: Tuesday 12th April, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
The Killing Times 