THE FALL RISES AGAIN

Surprising twists lie in store for Stella Gibson and Paul Spector as their deadly game of cat and mouse continues in a gripping third series of The Fall

There’s a serial killer who’s artistic, intelligent and drop- dead gorgeous. The brilliant detective investigating him, meanwhile, is a seductress with a penchant for silk shirts. In two previous series we’ve watched them hunt and stalk each other. Now, finally, dark thriller The Fall is back so that the show’s millions of devotees can see how Paul Spector and Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson’s game of cat and mouse is resolved.

For fans it’s been a very long wait. We first met the pair when Gibson, played by Gillian Anderson, was drafted to Belfast from London to review a murder case. She skilfully set about hunting down married father Spector, a grief counsellor.

By the end of series two in 2014, Spector, played by Jamie Dornan, had confessed a series of murders to Gibson and had been let out of jail to lead her to his latest victim, the barely alive Rose Stagg. The game appeared to be up, until violent James Tyler – who wrongly suspected Spector of sleeping with his wife – appeared from nowhere to shoot the killer and DS Tom Anderson, who was guarding him. Gibson’s instinct was not to help the injured Anderson, played by Merlin’s Colin Morgan, whom she’d spent the previous night with. Instead, she ran to a heavily bleeding Spector.

Series three opens right where we left off. Gibson and Spector are in an ambulance with Gibson determined Spector should live. ‘She’s obsessed with bringing him to justice,’ says Gillian, who found fame in The X-Files. ‘The idea that he would get away with it, get off easily by simply dying is a difficult thing for her to grasp but that might be a possibility and that’s playing out in front of her.’

‘There are quite remarkable turns in the third season that I really think people won’t see coming,’ adds Jamie. ‘And that is hugely exciting.’

The Fall made a star of former model Jamie who has gone on to be the fantasy man of millions as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades Of Grey films. ‘Professionally and personally so much has changed for me since I started on The Fall,’ says Jamie, who is currently starring in the war movie Anthropoid. ‘Although I do still struggle to find any redeeming qualities in Spector. He loves his children though.’

The show also put Gillian back into leading lady territory. ‘I wish I was Stella,’ she says. ‘She’s so uncompromising.’

Added into the mix is Spector’s stillobsessed schoolgirl neighbour Katie

Benedetto (Aisling Franciosi) along with his long- suffering wife Sally Ann (Bronagh Waugh).

On Stella’s side is another of her lovers, her boss Assistant Chief Constable Jim Burns (John Lynch) and her number two, tough-talking DCI Matt Eastwood (Stuart Graham). There are also new characters such as Spector’s nurse played by Aisling Bea. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that the brunette is exactly his type – the type he likes to murder.

So, is it the end of the line for the series? ‘Fans who are looking for a conclusion won’t be disappointed,’ says writer and director Allan Cubitt, but adds enigmatically, ‘ I don’t think this is the final chapter. It is not the end of The Fall.’ The Fall, Thursday, 9pm, BBC2.

ASSISTANT CHIEF CONSTABLE JIM BURNS (John Lynch) Still enamoured with his ex-lover Gibson, he is under pressure from superiors to keep her in line. DCI MATT EASTWOOD (Stuart Graham) Brought in against Gibson’s wishes, he has a grudging respect for the...

PAUL SPECTOR (Jamie Dornan) The cold-hearted killer had finally admitted his crimes to Gibson but is fighting for his life after being shot. DS TOM ANDERSON (Colin Morgan) The young detective was taken to bed by Gibson before being shot with Spector....