Ellis star reacts to season 2 twist and "kickass" stunt: "It wasn’t something I expected"

*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Ellis season 2 episode 2.*

As well as Ellis season 2 continuing to showcase long and winding journeys through various small town investigations, the second episode of the series also features some tense takedown scenes.

As Ellis (Sharon D Clarke) and Harper (Andrew Gower) get closer to the truth, it becomes all too clear that DS Malcolm Oliver (John Hollingworth) isn't just a well-meaning fellow police officer that's helping them on the case – but is the perpetrator himself.

It's quite the twist but is it one that Gower himself saw coming? When chatting exclusively to Radio Times about the tense final moments of the episode, Gower said: "No [I didn’t see it coming]. I think what’s great is that it makes the viewer, the next time you go into a case – time passes between these cases often – but it really does fuel the trust of the forces that we go into.

"I know you should always suspect everybody in a police episode but when you’re getting assistance from fellow detectives, you don’t expect that. So no, it wasn’t something I expected. Again, just great, nuanced writing and the fact that he, John Hollingworth’s character, is caught up in the local community, it shows those complications of police corruption, of childhood trauma as well. To combine those two worlds is a really exciting palette to make a TV show."

The scene also shows things getting quite physical as Harper quite literally takes down Oliver. How was it doing something quite different for Ellis?

"I don’t know whether it’s for comedy or to make Harper look a bit more kickass but yeah, it’s great," Gower told Radio Times.

"We’ve got an amazing stunt team and they seem to be testing Harper’s stunt moves. Whether it’s jumping over bonnets or taking somebody down with a fire extinguisher, it’s great. It’s nice when that stuff pops up in the script because you get to work physically as an actor, as well as all the verbal stuff that we deliver, the police jargon. It’s great to show some physical Harper moves."

At the end of that episode, we also see Harper take a bit of a step up in regards to Ellis, allowing her to focus a bit more on Grace while he can clearly handle some of their day-to-day admin.

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While it was a quiet moment between the pair, it's definitely an important one for their dynamic.

Speaking about that moment, Gower said: "It’s like in any great relationship, it’s basically saying 'I’ve got you', all of us here are going to be a constant, which I don’t think Ellis expects. Especially not somebody in the shape and form of Harper, right? To almost offer that up.

"I thought it was a real beautiful moment but said through action, rather than words. There was no big – Harper likes to monologue at times to Ellis and spout a lot of stuff about the case. But actually, I think his actions in this end scene really speak more volumes than what he says. He tells her to go and that’s it, that's an action as opposed to some grand monologue."

Ellis season 2 continues on Tuesday 17 March and Wednesday 18 March at 9pm on 5.

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