“I’ve been in a lot of pain and I’ve endured a lot of losses”: Tamzin Outhwaite shares how she used her pain and loss to play an addict whose daughter is in danger in season two of The Tower
The first season of gritty crime drama The Tower in 2021 was praised for the gritty human storylines surrounding the investigation into the deaths of a young woman and police officer who fell from a London tower block.
And as the series returns to ITV1 this week, two of its actors – Tamzin Outhwaite and Tahirah Sharif – reveal quite alarmingly that they could draw on real-life experiences to portray some of the darker scenes.
Tamzin joins the cast as recovering drug addict Cathy Teel for season two, which reprises Game Of Thrones’ Gemma Whelan as DS Sarah Collins and is based on a novel by former Met cop Kate London (a third season will be released). just rotated).
While Cathy seems to be getting her own life in order, not her daughter Georgina, who lives under the coercive control of her boyfriend Matt Brannon.
Actress Tamzin Outhwaite, from Ilford, east London, reveals she drew on her own experiences for the emotional scenes she had to act on the show
As domestic violence continues to escalate, Tahirah’s character PC investigates Lizzie Adama – and Cathy finds herself caught up in the aftermath.
“There were emotional scenes where I had to go places I don’t normally go, but I was able to draw on my own life,” says former New Tricks star Tamzin.
“I’ve had a lot of pain and suffered a lot of losses, and given the human emotions that this drama entails, I felt like my own life was the exploration.”
Tamzin, whose mother passed away suddenly a few years ago and who experienced a highly publicized split from her actor husband Tom Ellis in 2013, at the time admitting she was “brutally heartbroken,” felt comfortable with the demands of the Tower in every sense of the word injured 2.
“One day I couldn’t understand why my body was aching, then I remembered that the day before I had slid down a wall and sobbed many times as I was reacting to the horrific news.’ Basically, my body was traumatised.’
Tahirah, who received a BAFTA nomination for her work in season one, had an experience that came chillingly close to domestic violence scenes. “Pretty much the same thing happened to me next door,” she says.
“The father was violent at home, like this guy in the Tower.” “The woman didn’t want to press charges against her partner and I realized it’s never as easy as it seems.”
In addition to the domestic violence, the four-part second season also explores another case – an unsolved case involving the disappearance of a young woman on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral 25 years ago.
It’s up to DS Collins to find out what happened – even if her bosses think she has little chance.
“Sarah joined Homicide and was fobbed off by her new boss,” says Gemma. “But she sees the unsolved case as a challenge, as a mystery that she can solve by looking at it from a different perspective.”
Tamzin joins the cast as recovering drug addict Cathy Teel for season two, which reprises Game Of Thrones’ Gemma Whelan as DS Sarah Collins (right, with Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw).
Also returning are Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw and Emmett J Scanlan as DI Kieran Shaw, who had an affair with Lizzie Adama in season one. Sarah Collins’ signature orange duffle coat won’t be back, though.
“I used that in the first season to cover my pregnancy but now it’s gone back to the props as it did a very good job,” laughs Gemma.
That was a blessing as the cast endured sweltering heat while filming near Manchester in a building called the Stockport Pyramid, which doubled as a police station last summer.
“It was a great room, but it didn’t have air conditioning, and the higher you went, the hotter it got,” says writer and executive producer Patrick Harbinson.
Very fitting for the sizzling new series from The Tower.
- The Tower, Mon-Thu, 9pm, ITV1 and ITVX.