Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Home is in the Blood for crime thriller star Jimmy
JAMES Nesbitt has spoken of how he landed the leading role in new cop drama Bloodlands – by collaring its creator at a party.
The four-part BBC series, which starts on Sunday night, stars Nesbitt and is executive produced by Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio.
The Hobbit star plays DCI Tom Brannick, a seasoned detective who links a cold case with personal significance to a car with a suicide note being pulled from Strangford Lough.
Ahead of the show’s premiere, Nesbitt revealed Bloodlands shows Belfast in a new light.
He said: “We’re seeing a more contemporary city. It is a cat-and-mouse thriller but the fact that it has the legacy of the Troubles brings an added depth to it.”
And Nesbitt admitted he landed the leading role after a chat with Mercurio at a party.
He said: “When he was doing Line Of Duty in Northern Ireland, I would say to him, ‘Why am I not in that?’ but he’d say, ‘We’ll find something’.”
Bloodlands also stars actors Ian Mcelhinney, Lisa Dwan, Michael Smiley, and Charlene Mckenna.
And today NASA’S Perseverance is finally due to land on Mars – but whether it does so successfully will come down to what scientists describe as just “seven minutes of terror”.
Ever since last July, when it took off for the Red Planet, the US space agency and scientists in the UK have suffered spells of sleepless nights, anxiety, troubleshooting and second-guessing.
At 8.55pm, Perseverance is due to arrive on Mars after being slowed to almost zero velocity in what amounts to a controlled collision.
The £1.95billion mission, backed by the UK Government, aims to explore the planet, collect samples to return to Earth from its diverse environments – and answer the question posed in
David Bowie’s 1973 hit: “Is
There Life On Mars?”
The Rover – a scientific laboratory the size of a car – carries
19 cameras, more than any other interplanetary mission, and scientists hope they will send back breathtaking images of the
Martian landscape.
The research destination is Jezero crater, a 28-mile-wide depression containing sediments of an ancient river delta, where it is believed that evidence of past life could be preserved.
Perseverance will gather rock and soil samples using its drill and store them in tubes on the planet’s surface so a return mission can bring around 30 samples to Earth in the 2030s.
Sue Horne, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency, said: “It is great to see a strong representation of UK scientists and engineers involved in the Perseverance mission.
“Perseverance will bring us one step closer to answering the question that’s been on the lips of Bowie fans and scientists for the last 40 years.”
chris.bucktin@mirror.co.uk