We’ve collected a few interviews from Strike: Career of Evil which airs this Sunday night, here is the first, made by Digital Spy:
When a dismembered leg is sent to private eye Strike’s office, it sends the lives of both Cormoran (Tom Burke) and his partner Robin (Holliday Grainger) into disarray, forcing them to confront ghosts from their pasts.
The original book is pretty unflinching in its descriptions of certain acts of violence, with actress Grainger promising that the TV version is “pretty much [just] as hard-hitting”.
“I don’t think that it’s been toned down,” she tells Digital Spy and other press. “The story’s the same. It’s just maybe the focus isn’t always the same. If you’re reading the books, the focus might linger on something in more detail. Whereas this doesn’t.”
According to Grainger, the appeal for Robin of going away with Strike is “the freedom in being able to throw herself into her job without thinking of anyone else, and the excitement of that, and the respect she’s getting from Strike because she’s good at what she does”. “I think it gets mixed up in her feelings for him,” she adds.
“Any frisson that we pick up on as viewers, I’m not sure that Strike and Robin are even aware of in themselves,” Grainger says. “They’re obviously very close. And there’s a shorthand between them. But it’s the personal relationship that develops and becomes more questionable.
“They kind of fit together pretty well so far in every other aspect of their life. I can’t imagine them in a domestic setting, though. It might be true love that breaks up over who does the washing up, which would be pretty tragic. And not great viewing!”
Strike: Career of Evil begins on Sunday (February 25) at 9pm on BBC One. Previous two-parter Strike: The Silkworm is out now on DVD.