London 1946: The appropriately named Gabriel Book owns a bookshop in Archangel Lane. If his War was packed with espionage and secrets, Book’s peace is just as full of adventure! Now he helps the police solve the strangest of crimes and the knottiest of murders.
In series two of Bookish, the bibliophile sleuth investigates the world of spiritualism as he helps to solve a baffling case involving medium Harold Sneed (Jason Watkins) and a séance full of suspects. Off Savile Row, Inspector Bliss (Elliot Levey) asks Book to help in a puzzling crime at a gentleman’s outfitters- the elderly tailor Maxie Kleinmann (Allan Corduner) is keen to confess to murder but the evidence doesn’t quite stack up and points to something much more complex and sinister.
And Book and Jack (Connor Finch) are sent to the seemingly charming German village of Würl by the mysterious ‘E’ (Simon Callow) to thwart a thieving Duchess (Miranda Richardson) at Christmas time. However, festivities take a deadly turn when Book and Jack uncover secrets of their own in a castle brimming with shady characters. Book’s association with the police continues to be not without its personal dangers and his lavender marriage with childhood best friend Trottie (Polly Walker), is threatened by the debonair Colonel Winters (Rupert Graves).
Mark Gatiss Interview
Series one was such a success and set records for U&alibi. How does that feel as a writer, creator and star?
The success of the first series was obviously delightful but as William Goldman, the great screenwriter said, “nobody knows anything” so, who knew? I mean, we all put an awful lot of work into it, and I was very proud of it. Sometimes things come and go so the amount ofattention, coverage and positive reviews we got was absolutely delightful. The thing that remains is trying to make sure as many people as possible have seen it.
How would you describe the series to someone who is discovering Bookish for the first time?
To someonediscovering for the first time, where have you been? What have you been watching! It’s a detective show about an antiquarian bookseller in post war London who solves crimes on the side. He is a gay man living in a lavender marriage with his straight best friend and it's a dangerous, strange post war world in 1946. Book solves his crimes essentially by reference to all the books in his bookshop, which contained the sum of humanknowledge-plus, colouring books.
What do you think makes series two different from series one? Series two is definitely more ambitious. Inevitably, we were finding our feet with the first series and there was a deliberate effort to keep it quite contained, to establish the precinct of the bookshop and Archangel Lane. So, the first story is very much about the inhabitants of the lane. Then the film crew comes to the lane, and we sort of go down the road to the strand, to a big hotel. That was as far as wewent forseries one.
For series two, we reestablish the Lane and then we go a bit further afield, such as Germany, to solve the riddle of Jack's father. So, it's definitely bigger in scale, but I think it's also important for a second series to build on the first one and not suddenly become a different show. Obviously, we have to do it within the confines of our budget and our and ambitions, really.
Was there any source of inspiration when writing Bookish and how did you come up with the stories for this series?
Well, the first story, which is called Memento Mori, is about seances, and anyone who knows my Doctor Who history will know that's where I began. In fact, there's a character called Sneed in my first Doctor Who - The Unquiet Dead, and the name is back again. I've always been obsessed with the supernatural and seances, but really, I'm driven by an animus against mediums. I hate them! I love the whole chicanery of it, but I hate them as a species, as a people - they are grief leeches. Everything that Book says in the episodes is what I believe, but I love the hocus pocus of it.
Jason Watkins plays Harold Sneed, and you will see that he has a field day! I just thought it's a great idea for a murder with a close circle of everyone joining hands, no one apparently breaks the circle and yet somebody is stabbed. I've been mulling that for a while. The second story, Dead Man's Whistle, I discussed with Matthew Sweet last year, and I don't know if I should say this, but it's inspired by the most unlikely series of circumstances. I sent Elliot Levey and Connor Finch a Benny Hill sketch from the 70s, and Elliot responded with a Dick Emery sketch, and as a result, we were talking about Dick Emery's movie, Ooh You Are Awful, in which he plays all these characters from the TV show.
The plot of that story, believe it or not, is about a man who tattooed the coordinates of the location of some money he stole onto girls' bottoms, and I thought, you know, that's not a bad idea! So, somewhere out of that, we extrapolated the idea of a code contained within a suit. But that is the source of the idea! It’s about a murder in a tailor shop in a very murky world of espionage to do with Book’s past in the British Intelligence and the shadow of the Cold War. As wediscovered very shortly after the end of the war, the Russians suddenly became the enemy so there's an east wind of Soviet influence on that one.
The third story, Killer Nacht, is set in Germany and we go there to find out what happened to Felix- Book’s lover and Jack's father. I've thought about that for a long time, that it would be really lovely to do a sort of classic Agatha Christie type setting such as a country house, but in Germany, as it's something I've not seen before. As always, it's trying to find a new way of spinning an old story.
How did it feel to be reunited with the core cast from series one?
It was wonderful to come back and see everybody, and obviously because the show had done very well, there's a lovely momentum and energy from that. It doesn't feel like five minutes since series one. The very first thing we shot was The Plumchute Sisters at their homeless mission and a lot of people who’ve come back from series one were like, “didn't we just finish?”It really didn't feel very long but it's been delightful, and I think it's always nice to have a hit. It does buoy you up in that way, because it's a long shoot and you need something to keep you going. I think everyone's very pleased and proud of the show.
How do you think your character has developed from series one, and could you tell us about the writing process for this?
It's a difficult thing with the lead character because they should have the least development, I think, because that's what you're tuning in for. I always have to remember, first and foremost, it's a murder mystery, and the backstory has to be something that is in the background and there’s an arc to this series, as there was last year, but I was keen to do it with a light touch and not let it overshadow. Although, with episodes five and six, the back story of Jack and Book plus the murder mystery dovetail, so it becomes the point of the story. We see a little bit more of Book and Trottie’s marriage and something more of the dangerous netherworld he inhabits, but not too much because there's a long way to go for the series I hope, and it's still 1946- it's a very busy year with lot of murders! We do get to the end of 1946, but it's an interesting question because Book’s character is supposed to be the fixed point really, and unless you make a huge story point out of, I don't know, Book has a nervous breakdown or is exiled to America then he needs to remain pretty much as is. I need Book to be the man he is and for everything else to sort of move around him. That's really that's my thinking at the moment but things may change if we carry on.
Any Easter eggs that fans should keep an eye out for in this new series?
Well, if I told you I'd have to kill you! Or eat them. Yes, there's probably loads. I did see, which thrilled me, Esther, our wonderful makeup designer, showed me a video of her husband working in China and someone had done a video of all the literary references, all of them, with little spinning books saying ‘this quote is from this’. It’s marvellous! I always hoped someone would do that.
What’s been your favourite part of filming?
My favourite part is just coming back! You know, it's lovely to reunite with everyone so quickly and thanks to UKTV’s generosity for them to recommission the series before it went out, we were way ahead of the game and that makes a huge difference. If we'd had to wait for it to come out and then started writing, we wouldn't be here till next year. So, that's been brilliant. Also, just that lovely feeling of everybody going, ‘oh, this is good, isn't it? This is going well’. I suppose just in the best possible way, playing with really good people and good friends, there's no better way of earning a living
In the US, Bookish airs on Masterpiece PBS and Prime Video.
Bookish is back on U&Drama and UKTV from 26 August at 9pm.
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