Blow for Helen as ITV axes Fearless
HELEN McCrory will soon be rather busy, filming an eight-part BBC thriller MotherFatherSon with Richard Gere, along with the fifth series of Peaky Blinders.
So how on earth will she find time for another run of the ITV series Fearless, in which she played human rights lawyer Emma Banville?
Well, it turns out she won’t have to because the “exciting, visceral political thriller” – penned by Homeland’s Patrick Harbinson – has been axed after just one series.
When its run ended last summer, after Emma proved that a man serving life for killing a 14-year-old girl had been wrongfully convicted and was the victim of a cover-up, the actress said: “I hope the audience like it and we pick up and can go with different stories.
“When I read the script, I was more interested in her than the individual stories because of where you could take this character. You could do anything.” But unlike Homeland, which proved a hit for Harbinson and previously starred Helen’s husband Damian Lewis, 47, Fearless didn’t impress ITV viewers in quite the same way.
An audience of 7.2 million tuned in for the first episode but ratings slumped to less than five million for the second. In the series, Emma was a solicitor known for defending lost causes and, in this particular case, sensed powerful forces at work behind the scenes.
It turned out that the police and intelligence services at home and abroad didn’t want her to uncover the truth and, along the way, the plot got all caught up in the Iraq war.
Helen, 49, who also appeared in the Harry Potter movies as evil Draco Malfoy’s mother, clearly hoped Fearless would be a returner, saying: “There are so many different subjects you could go into and they could be discussed in the safe forum of drama.”
Yes, they could. But, as it turns out, they won’t be. An ITV spokeswoman confirms: “We aren’t pursuing another series of Fearless.”
Instead, Helen will begin filming MotherFatherSon, for BBC Two. It’s described as a political and psychological thriller “as much a family saga as it is a savage, unflinching study of power”, and is penned by Tom Rob Smith, of London Spy fame.
Midlands crime series Peaky Blinders, in which Helen plays Aunt Polly, is set to start filming this year.