Jed Mercurio’s Trigger Point Season 2 is a high-octane thriller starring Vicky McClure (Line of Duty) as Lana Washington. It’s set in the world of bomb disposal during a terror campaign where death is only a heartbeat away. The show is exclusive to BritBox. VICKY MCCLURE shares more in this interview.
You must have been delighted with the response that Trigger Point season one received?
I was really thrilled – it’s always a gamble putting out a new show with such a big concept, but I also had a lot of confidence in the series because I thought the script was strong and the characters were great. It was a real shocker when we won at the National Television Awards too, we had so much fun that night. I don’t do anything for the potential of an award, that’s really the cherry on top for any show, but it’s always such a pleasure when you win!
You’re an executive producer on Trigger Point, as well as an actor – how did you approach the second series?
For me it was just a case of elevating what we already had, because you don’t want to stray too far from what people liked about the show first time round. The audience responded well to the world of bomb disposal and it’s something we haven’t seen a lot of on telly, so I was really keen to make sure that we carried on listening to our advisors as much as we could and we tried to keep it as authentic as possible. We are making an explosive drama, but the characters and other elements of the show need to feel believable.
The terror threat this series is very complex. It’s not the same one-man band that we dealt with last time – it’s a much bigger game being played and the Met and expos find themselves in a long running cat and mouse game, they’re being sent in circles. It’s tense and frustrating and we’ve definitely got more explosives than last year.
How did it feel to step back into Lana’s boots for a second series?
It was really nice going back into a show with lots of returning cast and crew, so we stepped on set and we were all excited to see each other, it all felt so familiar. It was definitely a nice feeling putting the bombsuit and the boots back on and getting back into Lana’s world.
We thought a lot about the trauma that Lana and the team had been through and how that feels and how we should play it. I think there’s a lot to be said for doing nothing – when you work in those kinds of fields you can become quite desensitised to certain things and deal with them privately, so I didn’t want to turn Lana into this quivering mess all of a sudden. She’s still got a big job on her hands, but there’s always going to be that adrenaline for her. There will always be failures too, you can’t get everything right every time. Lana certainly doesn’t, and sometimes that’s due to incompetence, sometimes it’s about the device and sometimes her emotions get the better of her – we had lots of opportunities across six episodes to play on those moments.
What has Lana been doing since the end of series one?
She has been to Estonia to train bomb disposal units that are fighting over in Ukraine. It’s very unlikely she’d be sent to the front line in Ukraine, and we thought that could be quite distracting if we went down that road, but it felt very real that they would need her expertise to help train those people going to war. It felt right for her to have got away and to spend time away from her family, and away from the job.
How does she feel to be back at work in London?
The first time we see her she’s jumping off a flight with a huge bag, she’s been away for six months and she’s heading off to give a presentation to the Met about explosives. She doesn’t expect to see what she spots overhead – it’s a fireball that springs out across London and very quickly she has to go to work to deal with that. She’s cautious and anxious about getting into it straight away, it’s not what she was expecting, but her location means she’s the first at the scene and she ends up taking it on despite the fact that she’s not officially back until the next day. That ruffles some feathers with Hass, because he took over while she was away, and that puts a strain on their relationship. She also very quickly discovers that John is still working for the expo team, and she’s not happy about that.
She is quickly reunited with her old flame Thom – is there still romantic chemistry between them?
They are pleased to see each other and you see there’s a genuine fondness there, but Lana very quickly discovers that he does have a new girlfriend, Helen and she just so happens to be a beautiful, intelligent police officer. Thom is such a gent, he’s a good guy and it was a shame that Lana’s troubles got in the way of her being open enough to have that relationship with him, but there’s only so long that he could wait and he didn’t know if she would be back in six months, six years or never, so Thom is just getting on with his life. Lana’s intentions are quite unclear and we’ll see throughout the series where that relationship does head, there’s plenty to explore.
Did you do any more expo training ahead of this series?
Yes we did, we weren’t training to be bomb disposal officers of course, but we spent time with our advisor, Joel, who is a real expo, and he talked us through lots of different devices, and we could question him on how they’re made. It’s nice to understand them a bit more, and interesting to see how simple some of these devices are, as often they are not as complex as you might think. They all look different, they come in so many shapes and sizes, and they’re found in so many obscure places. Some are hoaxes and they’re set up to look like they are bigger than they really are, so there’s a lot of gameplay and mind games.
The writers have been very inventive this year, because we don’t just want to keep getting the robot out, and snipping wires, even though that’s a big part of bomb disposal. It was great they went a little bit further so it felt like we were looking at different types of devices this year and not just repeating what we’ve already done.
I did also feel like I was a bit more prepared this year, because there’s so much behaviour that I’ve picked up from series one and I got into a rhythm with acting with these devices, which I brought onto this series. The helmet thing was a big thing last time – everyone was screaming at the telly asking why on earth Lana was taking her helmet off in dangerous situations and I had to keep explaining that if she kept it on and the bomb went off that close it wouldn’t protect her. If she takes it off, it is less distracting and won’t knock a potential device or obscure her vision.
What was your most memorable scene this series?
There’s a sequence where we go underground, so we filmed at a disused underground station and we were all counting down the days till we were shooting there. It was like going into the beyond – it’s 150 stairs down with no lifts that work, there’s no toilets down there, you can’t have any food or hot drinks and there’s no signal so no-one can be on their phones. We were down there all day for two days and it was fascinating, the space was incredible to film in so we made sure we didn’t moan too much even though it was quite an ordeal!
There was another scene in which I had to get tasered and I’ve never done that before, either in acting or in real life thankfully! I didn’t want to look like an electrocuted cat in a cartoon, so it was trying to get the movements right and not make it look too comical. I did a lot of research and watched videos to try to get a bit of an idea of what the taser does to the body. All the other stunts were ones I’ve done before – I’m used to throwing myself around now! I do enjoy it, it’s a fun part of that job and I feel in very safe hands.
Trigger Point must be such a physically demanding show?
It was so exhausting! It is physical for sure, but the most tiring aspect is that I’m in pretty much every day because even if I’m not acting I’m there as an executive producer, watching footage and writing notes on scripts. I don’t want to be an exec just for the title, I’ve got my own production company now and I like to get involved. I’ve always been interested in production, ever since I started doing acting many years ago, because I’m pretty nosey and I like to know what’s happening.
I feel like a crew member on Trigger Point, which is great. I’m just one of those people who tends not to take too much time off. I think I did have one massage during the shoot because my back felt like it was broken in half at one point, but otherwise I just kept going. I turned 40 while we were filming, so that was a great excuse for me to keep moaning about the fact that I’m 40 and was doing all this running – the camera could tell it was me so there was no chance of using a stunt double! I lucked out though because my birthday was the day of the coronation so everyone was off. I was in the day after though, so no hangovers allowed, but thankfully I’m not a big drinker!
Did you have a laugh with the cast and crew on the shoot?
It was a really fun time, we have a tight team and they’re really hard working. They put the graft in from start to finish and they were there till the bitter end, so I’d work with that crew and cast again in a heartbeat. Everyone feels comfortable on that set – Nabil, who plays Hass, even felt comfortable enough to propose to his partner! The proposal was amazing, it was done while we were shooting the perfect scene and we all felt that anxiety as the moment was coming up. We were all fretting over Nabil and checking he had what he needed.
I was happy to bring the Greggs van back to set as I did last year, and everyone seemed happy to have a sausage roll! It’s important to look after people because they work long hours, and as actors we’re the ones who get paid well and looked after well, so I want to thank everyone else for their hard work – every single department is vital. I also got a mocktail van in because I couldn’t make the wrap party, I was doing Soccer Aid that night, which was a real shame that it clashed. So that was my way of having a drink with everyone. I’m always conscious of making sure people feel appreciated.
Does Trigger Point hold a special place in your heart?
Definitely. Every job is precious to me – I wouldn’t take a job unless I cared about the character and the people behind it or thought I could do something good with it. Trigger Point takes up such a large portion of my time and my life, and I hate being away from home. That’s the worst part of the job for me, so to be away from family for nearly five months shows the job means enough to me for me to do that. But it’s not a bad place to be when you’re getting to do the dream job.
I really hope the audience will be happy with this series. Personally, I do think it’s elevated, there are some brilliant new actors and we’ve got some really exciting storylines – it’s like Trigger Point series one on heat. I’m confident we’ve worked really hard to make it as exciting, gripping and emotionally compelling as it can possibly be.
Trigger Point S2
The second series starts a year on from the Crusader’s attacks. Lana Washington has returned to EXPO after helping train bomb disposal teams in Ukraine. While she’s back and giving a corporate talk on bomb disposal, a series of devices are used to attack a power station, causing widespread chaos and signalling the start of a new and active threat.
Lana works with MI5 and Counter Terrorism to uncover a wide but loosely connected terrorist cell, led by an anonymous leader and bound by their belief in anti-state conspiracy theories. Lana is pushed to her limits as she goes undercover, attempting to unmask the figurehead of the paranoid, delusional cell before they cause total devastation.
What: Trigger Point Season 2 Vicky McClure interview
When: Currently on BritBox
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