Making His
SCOT STARS IN Edinburgh actor is king of the autumn schedule as he appears in the return of two nailbiters which were filmed in Scotland – Guilt and Shetland
IT HAS taken him 20 years but finally Mark Bonnar has become the king of Scottish television. The affable 52-year-old, from Edinburgh, isn’t in one but TWO huge TV dramas this month.
Tonight, the second series of Guilt is shown across the UK on BBC Two after it was launched on Tuesday on BBC Scotland. And next Wednesday he’s back for a new series of Shetland on BBC One.
This year Mark filmed Scottish drama The Rig for Amazon Prime alongside fellow Scots stars Martin Compston and Iain Glen, who had their own time in the sun with Line of Duty and Game of Thrones.
And he’s currently filming Litvinenko with David Tennant, whose TV success includes Doctor Who and Des.
Mark said: “People haven’t got bored of me yet, so I’ll keep going until they do.”
While he has been a regular jobbing actor since 2001’s breakthorugh role in Rebus, as DI Jim Margolies, 2019’s Guilt made him a leading man. The series, written by Neil Forsyth, was a huge word-of-mouth hit as it mixed drama with dark humour, and was likened to a Coen brothers film.
It focused on two brothers who accidently kill an elderly man in an Edinburgh hit-and-run.
Mark played lawyer Max McCall, who with brother Jake ( Jamie Sives) tried to cover up the death but is eventually imprisoned. The second series sees him leaving prison after his time.
He said: “I’m very proud to be a part of it. The reaction we received following the first series was that people were proud Scotland had produced it.
“It showed we could produce something grown-up, funny and thoughtprovoking – and it looks spectacular, too.
“I think it punches way above its weight and that really instilled a real sense of pride in a lot of people in the business, as well as elsewhere.”
Both Guilt and the sixth series of Shetland were filmed during lockdown.
For Mark, his first post-lockdown job was the second series of Guilt which, given his character Max’s release from prison, felt about right.
He said: “It kind of suited what was going on in Max’s life as he had been isolated for a long time and then he came out.”
While set in Edinburgh and filmed there for a couple of weeks, most scenes were shot in Glasgow with a couple of days in East Kilbride.
Mark was just glad to be back doing his job – and admitted as lockdown stretched on last year he wondered if he would ever get back to acting.
He said: “I’ve had experience working for the council way back. I could always head back to the planning department.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever work again. None of us knew what was going to happen, did we? It was f ***** g terrifying at first and remains terrifying.”
Viewers who have seen the first episode of the second series already
agree it’s as good as the first series. Since then, countries such as France and Sweden bought it and a version is being made in India.
In the first episode of series two, we see Max coming out of prison and trying to get his life back on track.
He leans on Roy Lynch (Stuart Bowman), who took over his business when Max went inside.
He then teams up with Emun Elliot’s character, Kenny, and they form a legal firm together.
Adding some creepy undertones is Greg McHugh’s Teddy, an old cellmate of Max’s. Also in the cast is Downton Abbey actress Phyllis Logan, as Maggie Lynch – the matriarch of a crime family – and Jamie returns as Jake.
While Mark is the lead in Guilt, he’s back in the supporting role of Duncan Hunter for the sixth series of Shetland, which stars Dougie Henshall as cop Jimmy Perez.
Their characters share the upbringing of daughter Cassie, played by Erin Armstrong. Usually Perez has to help Duncan out and the new series sees the return of controversial character Donna Killick (Fiona Bell), who had an affair with Duncan.
In series four it was revealed she had killed a local girl, Lizzie, who was going to expose the affair.
Mark said: “Duncan starts to feel a sudden sense of responsibility for what went wrong with Donna.”
Once again Duncan and Perez are at loggerheads as Duncan tries to excuse Donna for what she did.
Perez describes it perfectly at the end of series five, ‘Being pals with Duncan is like supporting the Scotland football team – you always hope they’re going to get there in the end’.
As filming took place in lockdown, the island was even quieter than usual but Mark admits he still didn’t get time to explore. He said: “Over the last six years of filming I’ve had a total of three days off and only managed two or three locations like Eshaness, which is an absolutely staggering place and worthy of a visit.” Mark lives in Hertfordshire with Casualty
actress wife
Lucy Gaskell and their two chldren – Martha, 10 and Samuel, six – but dreams of showing them around the land of his birth. He said: “I want to take my kids to Scotland and take them to places I’ve been to as well as new places. I think they’d love Shetland, It’s a special place with a unique character.”
Guilt is on BBC Two tonight at 9pm. Episode two is on BBC Scotland next Tuesday at 10pm. All four episodes are now on the BBC’s iPlayer.
Shetland returns to BBC One next Wednesday at 9pm.
It showed we could produce something grown-up, funny and thoughtprovoking MARK BONNAR ON SEASON ONE OF GUILT