Channel 4’s popular crime thriller ‘Before We Die’ is back for a second season, plunging Lesley Sharp back into a mob-vs-cops battle royale as a hard bitten West Country detective up to her neck in ruthless gangsters, sneaky moles and errant sons.
‘The Full Monty’ actress plays Hannah Laing, a Bristol cop who is coming to terms with the death of her partner, fellow cop Sean Hardacre. She’s on the trail of the cocaine-smuggling Mimica crime family, Croatian expats now running the Bristol underground, and has her estranged son, Christian, to worry about. He’s fallen in love with Bianca, the daughter of Mimica matriarch Dubravka.
Season 2 picks up three months on with Christian, newly unmasked as a mole in Mimica operation, the living an idyllic but nervy life in Costa Rica, and Laing officially out of semi-retirement to sort it all out.
Where is Before We Die S2 filmed?
The series, which is based on a Swedish crime drama, unfolds mainly in Bristol. Sharp-eyed fans with local knowledge can expect to see city landmarks like Clifton’s Grade II-listed Paragon building, Victoria Square, Stokes Croft, Brandon Hill Park and York Road in Montpelier.
‘We just thought it was such an interesting, quasi-European with all this renaissance grandeur and the sea and the lovely posh Notting Hill-ish type village of Clifton,’ says executive producer Walter Iuzzolino about filming in the city.
‘We wanted to set it in a port city, as that is important to the drug trafficking storyline,’ adds executive producer Jo McGrath. ‘We were looking for something a little less familiar and Bristol is one of those cities that actually has been used as a backdrop for filming a lot, but you wouldn’t know it because a lot of series are filmed there but not set there.’
But not all of the Bristol scenes were filmed in the UK. Brussels stands in for the city’s docks.
‘Part of the challenge was making Belgium match with the other scenes in Bristol – which was interesting,’ says director Jan Matthys. ‘We became specialists in “Anglifying” Belgium. It was simple things such as putting double yellow lines on the streets which made it instantly Bristol. I love the magic of my craft and this was a good way to bring the series to life.’
Standing in for Costa Rica, meanwhile, is Almeria in southern Spain. ‘It was lovely to shoot out there and the location guys found some amazing places,’ says Patrick Gibson, who plays Christian Laing. ‘I was shocked by how much it felt like Costa Rica.’
How can I watch Before We Die?
Episodes air on Tuesdays at 9pm on Channel 4 or you can stream the whole season now on All4.
How many episodes are in season 2?
Season 2 clocks in at five episodes, one fewer that season 1.
Who is the cast of Channel 4’s Before We Die?
In the lead role as Detective Laing is Lesley Sharp, all-round British acting royalty best known for playing the ex of David Thewlis’s drifter in Mike Leigh’s ‘Naked’ and a stack of TV series, including ITV police procedural ‘Scott & Bailey’.
Playing Laing’s troubled son Christian is ‘The OA’ and ‘Shadow and Bones’ Patrick Gibson, while Vincent Regan (‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’) is Billy, a maverick friend who joins her quest for justice.
The Mimica’s ruthless matriarch Dubravka is played by British actress Kazia Pelka (‘Brookside’), while Issy Knopfler, daughter of Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler, is Bianca Mimica.
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