“There is a visible and an invisible world – that’s why people get hurt,” says Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan). And he knows more about hurt – both as giver and receiver – than most.We head towards a predictable denouément with a sick foreboding because events, although absorbing – have been travelling at a sclerotic pace. Physical action has also slowed; everyone has been moving around at a leisurely gait (partly dictated by Spector’s incapacitation) as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) stares gauzily into the middle distance in the same way that Amanda Burton used to in Silent Witness.
Over the three-series arc of The Fall we have witnessed something that rarely happens to characters in returning police procedurals; its lead character has evolved. No, not changed personality entirely, as sometimes happens with the vagaries of plot-led dramas or different writers – but matured and deepened.
The Fallis fast reaching its Miltonian conclusion – this episode is entitled The Hell Within Him, and like every other title in the series it’s from Paradise Lost.
‘Horror and doubt distract His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir The hell within him; for within him Hell He brings’.
And there is no doubt that all those involved with the satanic Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) have been hurled out of Eden.
The tempo in the third run of The Fall has so far been noticeably more lethargic than in the previous two series. Much of this has been enforced by the fact that writer and creator Allan Cubitt has written his characters into a corner. His protagonist Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) might be upright, but her antagonist Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) is still recuperating (although in impressive shape) in Belfast General. So unless he really is one of the undead, there isn’t much prospect of him getting into tip-top strangling shape for a few weeks. Remaining internal bullet fragments apart, such catastrophic blood loss would put any mortal on bed rest for a while. But what he lacks in mobility he makes up for in menace.
In last week’s opener, everyone’s favourite ‘midnight strangler’ (did you see him jump the garden wall, Keef?) Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) was – fortunately for the province’s attractive 30-something professional women – sleepy-byes in an induced coma in Belfast General Hospital’s intensive care unit with almost half his blood having been mopped up of the floor in A&E.
It’s two years since we left the world’s most unlikely grief counsellor, Paul Spector, AKA the Belfast Strangler, gut-shot in a clearing in the woods outside the city.This time the carnage was not of his making. While under arrest and helping the police to find former girlfriend Rose Stagg, his latest captive, Spector (Jamie Dornan) was unexpectedly shot by Loyalist gangster Jimmy Tyler, who suspected him of having an affair with his estranged wife.
Three years ago I interviewed face-to-face in the lead-up to a new series on BBC2 called The Fall. He was to play a serial killer called Paul Spector, opposite Gillian Anderson’s Stella Gibson, the police officers tasked with tracking him down. He was a lovely, slightly shy man, full of interesting insights, but little did we both know what happen to both the show and him during the next three years. Dornan is now a global star and a household name, while the show has gained awards, plaudits and much notoriety. I managed to get hold of an interview in the lead-up to this series, which you can read after the jump. Continue reading Interview: Jamie Dornan, The Fall→
How’s this for a hot take: Gillian Anderson’s DCI Stella Gibson is a career best performance. Do you agree? Even if you don’t you have to admit she’s pretty stunning in The Fall, that often incredible cat and mouse game. It’s back this week, and we managed to get hold of an interview with Anderson, which you can read after the jump. Continue reading Interview: Gillian Anderson, The Fall→
Gillian Anderson returns as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson in The Fall in only a few weeks time to carry on her deadly cat and mouse game with the serial killer, Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan). Now we know when their dance will continue… Continue reading BBC confirms transmission date season three of The Fall→
During its two previous series, The Fall has proved itself to be quite unlike any other crime drama on television. Yes, it has all our favourite procedural elements, characters that kind of fit into familiar archetypes, but what sets it apart is the two main characters – DCI Stella Gibson (played by Gillian Anderson) and the serial murderer Paul Spector (played by Jamie Dornan) who have been locked in a cat-and-mouse game, both addicted to the chase and seemingly fascinated by each other. And this is what sets The Fall apart – great acting, and the kind of will-they-won’t-they that isn’t your usual will-they-won’t-they. It’s back for a third series in the coming weeks, and last night there was a screening and a Q&A with the stars. Continue reading First Look: The Fall, season three→
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Three years ago I interviewed face-to-face in the lead-up to a new series on BBC2 called The Fall. He was to play a serial killer called Paul Spector, opposite Gillian Anderson’s Stella Gibson, the police officers tasked with tracking him down. He was a lovely, slightly shy man, full of interesting insights, but little did we both know what happen to both the show and him during the next three years. Dornan is now a global star and a household name, while the show has gained awards, plaudits and much notoriety. I managed to get hold of an interview in the lead-up to this series, which you can read after the jump. 
How’s this for a hot take: Gillian Anderson’s DCI Stella Gibson is a career best performance. Do you agree? Even if you don’t you have to admit she’s pretty stunning in The Fall, that often incredible cat and mouse game. It’s back this week, and we managed to get hold of an interview with Anderson, which you can read after the jump. 
Gillian Anderson returns as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson in The Fall in only a few weeks time to carry on her deadly cat and mouse game with the serial killer, Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan). Now we know when their dance will continue… 
The Killing Times 