Fortitude
RICHARD DORMER on the chilling final snowbound series of Arctic thriller Fortitude
DRAMA Sky Atlantic HD, 9pm In the third and final series of the Arctic-set thriller, Dan (Richard Dormer) continues his descent into madness.
WHEN VIEWERS WERE first introduced to the Norwegian settlement of Fortitude – the remote, Arctic setting for the gripping Sky Atlantic thriller of the same name – one of its residents, Governor Hildur Odegard (Sophie Gråbøl), insisted that it was ‘the safest place on Earth… There’s no crime – everybody’s always happy’.
She couldn’t have been more wrong. Since then, we’ve had cannibalism, prehistoric wasp larvae infecting human hosts, decapitations, shamanic rituals, a memorable death by fork and a remarkably high body count that included the unfortunate governor.
And considering the succession of big names – including Gråbøl, Christopher Eccleston, Michael Gambon, Stanley Tucci, Ken Stott and Parminder Nagra – who have been dispatched so far, fans are aware that no one is safe as
Fortitude reaches what looks like being a typically strange, violent and bloody conclusion.
FALLOUT
The psychological thriller, starring Richard Dormer as sheriff Dan Anderssen, returns for a final four-part run this week, and it’s hard to imagine how creator Simon Donald can top what’s come before.
In series two, Dan miraculously returned from the Arctic wilderness alive but, having been infected by a prehistoric parasite, seemed to have turned from the good shepherd into the big bad wolf.
‘This is without doubt the best part I’ve ever played,’ beams 49-year-old Dormer. ‘Dan’s a monster, but he has a conscience. Even though he’s losing his humanity, there’s still a little seed of goodness in him.’
THE UNQUIET DEAD
As we rejoin the action, investigations are ongoing into the supposed suicide of Governor Munk (Ken Stott), while widowed fisherman Michael (Dennis Quaid) is drowning his sorrows in booze, and there are new arrivals who are linked to the parasitic infection that turned Fortitude into a living hell.
And this series it doesn’t take long to learn that all is far from well with the gruff, bearded sheriff.
‘Dan is seeing some interesting things that other people can’t see,’ grins the former Game of Thrones star. ‘He’s now addicted to muscimol juice [made from the
urine of reindeer that have eaten hallucinogenic mushrooms]. Eskimos used to actually drink this to be able to have visions of the afterlife. Dan now has one foot in this world and the other foot in the land of the dead, and he can communicate with the people who he has killed.’
THE CHILL FACTOR
With death coming in all sorts of bizarre ways in the fictional Fortitude, Dormer reveals that, when filming in sub-zero temperatures, the cast and crew had to be extremely careful simply when venturing outdoors.
‘Being on a Skidoo going across the tundra when it’s about -50 with a wind chill, you can get frostbite on your nose and cheeks within 30 seconds,’ he explains. ‘And if you’re just going out for a walk, you’ve got to tell somebody, because if you slip and get knocked unconscious, you’re dead in15 minutes!’
‘This is without doubt the best part I’ve ever
played’
richard dormer