BritBox's 'The Tower' Will Return for a Second Season
ITV's The Tower didn't make a big splash in the US when BritBox picked it up last December. But the three-part crime thriller drama was a critical darling, with the all-too-rare 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on Kate London's debut novel, Post Mortem, the mystery revolved around investigating the demise of a veteran police officer and a teenage girl. They were killed when they fell from the roof of a tower block of flats. In the wake of the tragedy, the show's driver was the search for those who witnessed it, a five-year-old boy and a rookie police officer.
The only issue is that the story was a bit of a one-and-done. Kate London has two more novels in her The Metropolitan series, but the mysteries are utterly unconnected. However, ITV has decided to forge ahead in adapting them, with The Tower II: Death Message greenlit for next year. Gemma Whelan (Killing Eve) is confirmed to return as DS Sarah Collins, with Tahirah Sharif (The Haunting of Bly Manor) as her rookie partner, PC Lizzie Adama. Emmett J Scanlan (Kin) and Jimmy Akingbola (Kate & Koji) will return as Inspector Kieran Shaw and DC Steve Bradshaw, respectively.
Based on London's follow-up novel of the same name, the new series will again focus on "a mother and daughter in peril, and two police officers who set out to save them." That being said, the details of the novel are already obviously changed. The cold case Collins becomes obsessed with in the book is from 1987. The mother in question has been waiting for over a quarter-century to find out what happened to her child. The new synopsis reveals the series has updated the story to the late 1990s, with the child disappearing on the day of Princess Diana's funeral.
Here's the new season's synopsis:
The new series opens with DI Kieran Shaw pairing up Lizzie Adama with a new partner to take on a domestic violence complaint where a man is accused of beating up his girlfriend. However, once the case reaches court, Lizzie finds herself cross-examined on the stand, leaving the case on a knife-edge. Meanwhile, Sarah Collins has transferred to Homicide Command where her new boss isn’t welcoming. He asks her to reopen the case of a girl who disappeared on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral. Sarah knows that she has been given an impossible challenge, but gradually, unearths clues that previous investigations overlooked. Soon enough, Sarah’s investigations take a further twist, resulting in her and Lizzie crossing paths again.
Whelan, Sharif, Scanlan, and Akingbola are joined by returning cast member Michael Karim (Inspector Lewis), who reprises his recurring role as PC Arif Johar. New cast members announced so far include Charley Palmer Rothwell (Dunkirk) as the man accused of domestic abuse, Mark Brannon , and Rosa Coduri (Pennyworth) as his girlfriend, Georgina Teel, who Lizzie convinces to press charges. There are still a few more roles to fill in the cast, but with filming slated to begin later this summer, chances are they'll be announced soon. Screenwriter Patrick Harbinson (Homeland) returns to adapt London's second novel; Faye Gilbert (The Bay) will direct all episodes, tasking over from Season 1's Jim Loach.
There is no release date for The Tower II: Death Message, but with filming slated to begin in late summer, fans should expect it to arrive sometime in early 2023.
