Irish actor Victoria Smurfit said her favorite location while filming Bloodlands was Strangford Loch on the Down coast, which she said was “unbelievably beautiful”.
James Nesbittas Detective Chief Inspector Tom Branick in the BBC crime show, now in its second series, he is joined by his former Cold Feet co-star Victoria, who plays a new character, the enigmatic widow Olivia Foyle.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster on Friday, Ms Smurfit said the location of Strangford Lake could be considered one of the show’s characters.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely Baltic, but it was the end of February and I’ve never been properly dressed, but it was just lovely,” she said.
“One of the characters is the location itself, especially if it has as distinct a feature as the north of Ireland or the south.
“They come with their own personalities and there’s something so fantastical, hauntingly beautiful and a little foreboding about the shots across the lake at dawn and the lights breaking through the trees,” she added.
“It’s incredibly beautiful and yet there are so many places to hide and that’s what I love about being there, your imagination can just run wild.”
She added that one complaint she had about working with James Nesbitt was that “he didn’t keep her going enough in the evening.”
“He took me to the posh Oaks in Belfast, which was amazing, but I thought, ‘hmm, you should have done it more,'” Victoria said.
The first series of Bloodlands, set in Northern Ireland, debuted last February and follows Chief Inspector Branick’s torturous quest to track down the mysterious serial killer known as Goliath.
The show was so popular with viewers that the BBC quickly ordered a second season.
Set and filmed in Belfast, Bloodlands is the first drama produced by Jed Mercurio’s production house HTM Television, with the Call of Duty creator serving as one of the show’s executive producers.
The series continues this Sunday on BBC One Northern Ireland.
