‘We don’t know how, but we got onto the roof of Liverpool Street Station’
Mark Strong is back starring in a new season of Temple, writes Danielle de Wolfe
For many people, the past 18 months has been plagued by uncertainty, travel restrictions and unprecedented work disruption. For the cast and crew of returning Sky Original crime drama Temple, it proved a prime opportunity to take advantage of the nation’s quiet city streets, transforming a near deserted London into their own personal playground.
With reduced crowds and traffic granting the crew access to locations normally deemed off-limits, the race was on to capitalise on the lull. Taking to the streets of Chinatown, the rooftops of Liverpool Street and the abandoned tram network beneath Holborn, the freedom to film came as something of a surprise to the show’s lead director, Christopher Smith.
“We don’t know how, but we got onto the rooftop of Liverpool Street Station,” says Smith, best known for his work on feature-length horrors including Severance and Creep. “We sort of said ‘can we go up there’… Maybe the staff had nothing to do because no-one was travelling but we suddenly found ourselves with a camera, shooting.
“Bar Italia is somewhere that is always full; this 24-hour cafe never closes and suddenly we can film in there,” he says.
Once again the lead is Mark Strong, best known for his roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Kingsman and 1917.
Temple is intrinsically linked to the London Underground station of the same name. With series one depicting rogue surgeon Daniel Milton (Strong) who runs an illegal clinic for criminals – all while attempting to save his gravely ill wife Beth (Catherine Mccormack) – the show operates from the confines of his shady bunker situated directly beneath the bustling transport hub.
Entering series two, Strong is once again joined by Daniel
Mays and Emmy nominee Carice van Houten. The addition of Rhys Ifans as an underworld fixer named Gubby adds an entirely new level of peril.
With Smith describing Ifans’ character as a “tier up” from the criminal fixers featured in series one, Gubby becomes both Daniel’s coconspirator and a “type of nemesis”. An introduction that sees Gubby’s reputation for sinister dealings and illegal antics precede him, Strong explains how the creators “set him up as a nutter” before “Rhys dutifully comes in”.
Having left the door to the illicit world of organ trading ajar and with Milton’s wife having awoken from her coma, life is now on an entirely different trajectory for the pair, and for those involved in Daniel’s underworld dealings.
To create what Smith describes as “film noir, but without the moody lighting,” Temple was shot using 1960s anamorphic lenses: a trick which enables an extremely wide field of view such as skylines to be captured without distorting faces, the resulting footage boasts a distinctly stylised look.
“The look of the show, all of that is just top drawer,” says Strong.