Vigil will return to screens alongside three other major BBC drama sequels

Submarine thriller Vigil will return to BBC alongside another series The Tourist, Time and The Responder

Submarine thriller Vigil is returning to our screens alongside three other major BBC drama sequels.

The group’s chief content officer Charlotte Moore revealed Martin Freeman will be back in the tense cop drama The Responder and Suranne Jones will star in another Warning.

A second series of The Tourist, with Jamie Dornan, is also in the works, and Jimmy McGovern’s Time, starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham, will return.

Praising Dornan’s amnesiac drama set in Australia, she said: “In the first 30 days of the series, 12 million people watched The Tourist – that’s twice as large as the biggest show. , Stay Close, on Netflix.

“The power the BBC has to reach millions of people is far greater than we may realize.”

Vigil was the most watched TV series in the UK for three years, using 30-day viewing data. The first episode of the series attracted 13.4 million viewers.

Freeman played night duty cop Chris, a “human car accident,” in The Responder, while the hit prison story Time grossed $11.3 million for its opening episode.

Absent from TV series, the BBC has faced some of its big names leaving in recent months, including the loss of Graham Norton from Radio 2.

When asked about the departures of big stars, Moore said: “Look, I think Graham Norton is a total genius at what he does. But when a program ends its life cycle, you see a new person.

“When a presenter wants to move on, you think about how you develop the show.”

Other recent departures include Andrew Marr, Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis from the news department.

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Speaking about the talent on Radio Times, she said: “It would be worrying if nobody was poached. It means we clearly didn’t do it right. It presents a great opportunity for the next generation.”

Moore praised the company’s coverage of the Ukraine conflict and what it provided to license fee payers during the shutdown.

“The BBC is proving its worth,” she said. I think we did it during Covid.

“There are moments when we have the feeling that we never really needed a public service broadcaster more, to inform and educate, entertain, and to bring the nation together.”

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