Bleak truth rises slowly to surface
Can you help me? A child’s voice whimpers on the phone in the trailer for the second series of Jane Campion’s thriller Top Of The Lake.
The psychological crime drama returns to BBC Two later this month with Elisabeth Moss reprising her Golden Globe-winning role as Detective Robin Griffin.
The eagerly-awaited series also sees Big Little Lies star Nicole Kidman don a grey wig to join the cast along with Game of Thrones actress Gwendoline Christie.
A short trailer for the show was first aired at the Cannes Film Festival and fans of neo-noir have been counting down the days until its release ever since.
Moss’ tortured Kiwi cop Griffin returns to Sydney in season two to rebuild her life and try to reconnect with a daughter she gave up for adoption – now being raised by Kidman’s eccentric character Julia.
KILLER
When a suitcase containing the body of a young Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, investigators hold out little hope of finding the killer until Griffin realises “China Girl” did not die alone.
Her quest to identify the victim takes her into the city’s dark underbelly and too close to home for comfort as Griffin realises her estranged daughter’s new boyfriend may have worked at the brothel where China Girl was last seen alive.
The taut crime mystery’s impressive cast includes David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and Ewen Leslie (The Daughter).
If the first season was dark then the second, which opens with a prostitute’s body being shoved into a suitcase and pushed over a cliff, is blacker still. In an interview with Deadline.com at Cannes, Moss explained that her interest in returning for season two was that troubled Detective Robin’s life would get even more desperate. She said: “I love that she’s far worse than where we left her right away and then goes further down. It was a request on my part, and then three years later I got it.
“I was so challenged by the first season and fulfilled that I needed it to be a step further, otherwise why revisit.”
Writer and director Jane Campion agreed, adding: “I wanted her to start at the very bottom of the barrel, broken.
“In a crime thriller the darkness has to be there, it’s their total playground.”
Gwendoline Christie, meanwhile, best known for playing fearsome warrior Brianne of Tarth in HBO’S GOT, said she watched the first season four times before writing a “begging letter” to be involved in the next series.
Top Of The Lake: China Girl will air on BBC Two in July – date yet to be confirmed.
I love that she’s far worse than where we left her ELISABETH MOSS ON HER CHARACTER IN SEASON 2