Bill Nighy returning in the Worricker trilogy on PBS this Fall
While there will be the inevitable comparison to the Cornetto Trilogy, the Worricker Trilogy may just have a minor leg up given the greatness of Bill Nighy and Christopher Walken. As we reported earlier this month, The Worricker Trilogy, which began with Page Eight, is set to continue with Bill Nighy reprising his role as MI5 spy Johnny Worricker in Turks & Caicos and Salting The Battlefield, the second and third installments of David Hare’s Emmy-winning spy trilogy.
The initial installment, Page Eight, aired on BBC Two and on PBS in 2011 and starred Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, Judy Davis and Michael Gambon. The forthcoming installments will premiere on PBS’ Masterpiece series early this Autumn. This behind-the-scenes clip shows not only the greatness of Bill Nighy but the equally as brilliant, Christopher Walken.
Produced by Carnival Films (Downton Abbey, The Hollow Crown, Any Human Heart) and filmed in London and on the Caribbean island of Turks & Caicos, this first follow-up to the award winning Page Eight, Turks & Caicos, will star Bill Nighy, Christopher Walken, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Graves, Ewen Bremner, James Naughton, Dylan Baker and Zach Grenier. Johnny Worricker (Nighy) has walked out of his job at MI5, going to the airport apparently to choose his destination at random. But his presence on the obscure islands of Turks & Caicos brings him a new problem: he is being forced by the CIA to deal with a group of ambiguous Americans who are on the islands for a high-level conference on the world financial crisis. At the same time, an old girlfriend, Margot Tyrell, is being asked to betray her boss in London in order to establish an illicit connection between the prime minister and dark goings-on in the ‘war on terror’.
Up next is Salting The Battlefield which again stars Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Rupert Graves alongside Felicity Jones, Olivia Williams, Saskia Reeves, Judy Davis, Kate Burdette, Ewen Bremner and Malcolm Sinclair. Filmed in London and Germany, Salting The Battlefield follows Johnny Worricker and Margot Tyrell on the run across Europe, with MI5 hard on their heels. But life in exile is proving much harder than either of them expected. Worricker knows that his only chance of resolving the issues in both his personal and his professional lives is if he returns home to confront the powerful Prime Minister, Alec Beasley. In a duel of wits between the two men, there will be only one winner.
Hands down, the real winner will be the PBS Masterpiece viewer this Autumn…
