April 9

How has Tommy come to terms with the loss of his partner Gerry?

Tommy is still grieving despite it being a year since Gerry’s death. I think it’s something that will stay with Tommy for the whole of his police career. It was very difficult from the start but it was the same for everyone on the unit as Gerry occupied a special place for them all.

How has he adapted to sharing a squad car with another partner?

It depends on who Tommy is in the car with. He doesn’t have a regular partner but he gets on with Annie and Sandra like a house on fire. However, there are a few new faces in the second series that Tommy doesn’t necessarily see eye to eye with and that leads to some issues further into the story.

Did you do any additional research this year?

I did some more research this year to do with body language of how police handle themselves in certain scenarios. Normally you would look someone in the eye if having a conversation but when you are faced with a heightened situation you have to take in so much detail around you and police tend to stand at angles to the person they’re talking to. I took all those details and more with me into the second series.

How has his own life moved on? He seems more confident and isn’t the green recruit we met in series one?

In Tommy’s personal life we see him having a love interest in the second series. You see how Tommy’s confidence with women is extremely low when it comes to dating and it’s like he’s going through this for the first time. Although he’s not green to the job anymore, he is still a bit green when it comes to navigating his new love interest.

We see DI Murray Canning takes an interest in Tommy? Why is that?

Canning tries to bring Tommy into his clique with Shane because he can see how loyal Tommy is and was to Gerry and he sees potential there. He also recognises Tommy’s ability to see patterns and numbers in a different way to other people and sees that as a real skills asset. Finally, Tommy is easily influenced and Canning can see that and plays to that to Tommy’s detriment.

What new skills have you had to learn this time round?

Some things needed to change for Tommy from series one to series two and for me personally as an actor. I lost a bit of weight, which I thought was right for the character and I started doing a bit of kickboxing to toughen Tommy up a little bit. He needed to toughen up in order to survive in the police force in Northern Ireland. As a result we see Tommy sticking up for himself more and we see that tenacity and diligence pay off for him.