Top left to right: Joe Dempsie (Image: Eric Frideen), Nina Toussaint-White (Image: Michael Shelford) and Fisayo Akinade (Image: Phil Sharp) Bottom left to right: Kerrie Hayes (Image: Faye Thomas), Francesca Annis
The BBC has announced further casting for Season 2 of the hit anthology series ‘Showtrial‘, written and created by Ben Richards and made by World Productions (Vigil, Line of Duty, Anne) for BBC One and iPlayer.
The new series, featuring a brand new cast and explosive new murder investigation, will this time focus on the trial of Officer X, a policeman accused of murdering a climate change activist. As previously announced, ‘Showtrial’ season two will star BAFTA award-winner Adeel Akhtar (Sherwood, Ali & Ava, Utopia), Nathalie Armin (Home, Unforgotten, The Batman), and Michael Socha (The Gallows Pole, Chernobyl, This Is England).
When the high-profile climate activist Marcus Calderwood is left for dead in a violent hit and run, he uses his dying moments to identify his killer – a serving policeman. But who is this unnamed Officer X? What does his own history reveal about the nature of trauma and revenge, and was Marcus’s death a careless accident or cold-blooded murder?
From the victim’s last breath to the jury’s final verdict, Showtrial takes us into the worlds of the charismatic and cocky officer Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha); Sam Gill (Adeel Akhtar), an anxious defense solicitor with a reputation for winning lost causes; and Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin), a rigorous CPS lawyer leading the case against the accused.
As public outrage reaches fever-pitch, Showtrial questions what happens when a trial is dominated by contentious issues and whether the truth is ever clear cut. Is a fair trial possible when tensions are riding so high?
Additional cast announced today includes BAFTA-winner Francesca Annis (Fresh & Blood, Home Fires) Joe Dempsie (Pieces of Her, Game of Thrones), Nina Toussaint-White (Bodyguard, Witness Number 3), Zoe Telford (Men Only, Teachers), Fisayo Akinade (Heartstopper, Dangerous Liaisons), Tom Padley (The Lost Pirate Kingdom, Silent Witness), Kerrie Hayes (Blue Jean, Tin Star), Ali Khan (A Haunting in Venice, Everyone Else Burns), Daniel Kendrick (Inside Man, Call The Midwife), Frankie Wilson (Against the Ice, The Souvenir), Anna Próchniak (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Baptiste), Anna Wilson Jones (Victoria, Harlots), John Light (Around the World in 80 Days, Mars), Aidan McArdle (Spy Master, The Duchess), Daisy Badger (The Sandman, Doctors), Flora Montgomery (The Crown, Bloodlands), Pearce Quigley (Detectorists, The Wheel of Time), John Marquez (Doc Martin, Britannia), Anna Healy (Mother’s Day, Inside I’m Dancing) and Barney Fishwick (Living, The Buccaneers).
“Watching new cast added is always one of the most rewarding elements of creating a show, said Ben Richards. “It is truly a privilege to have actors of such variety and talent.”
‘Showtrial’ is created and written by Ben Richards, directed by Julia Ford (Everything I Know About Love, Safe) and produced by Ken Horn (Line of Duty, The Moorside). Executive producers are Simon Heath and Emma Luffingham for World Productions (an ITV Studios company), with Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC.
‘Showtrial‘ Season 2 does not yet have a premiere date, but will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
