ITV show The Tower certainly doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to murder. We’ve had disappearances, gruesome deaths, drugs, stabbings — and even cold cases.
Tackling it all is London Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins, the no-nonsense police officer who seems to get landed with the worst of the capital. And this week, she’s back for more as The Tower’s third season gets ready to air on ITV.
What can we expect from the upcoming season? Plenty of drama, that’s for sure.
Here’s what we know.
Warning: there are spoilers ahead.
What’s The Tower about?
The series is based on Post Mortem, the first in a series of books from author Kate London, about Sarah. She works for the fictional DSI department.
The first series explored the suspicious deaths of a veteran Met Police officer and a young Libyan girl who fell to their deaths from the roof of a London tower block.
Soon after, Constable Lizzie Adama, one of the only witnesses, disappears. Sarah has to search for her missing colleague and solve the mystery of what happened on the tower’s roof.
What happened at the end of season two?
Season two involved Sarah investigating the 26-year-old cold case of a missing schoolgirl, Tania Mills.
After days of searching, Tania’s body is finally found in Morville Park, in the memorial garden planted in her memory by music teacher Adrian Stephenson and Tania’s classmates. It’s then revealed that Tania’s best friend, Katherine (Rosalie Craig) has her own story about Stephenson: that he “persuaded her” to play the violin naked during her private music lessons.
Though Stephenson is arrested, the plot thickens and Sarah discovers that Stephenson's ex-wife Abigail Levy (Rebecca Calder) was also underage when they got married. Abigail confesses that she killed Tania by pushing her down the stairs in a fit of rage when she discovered she was being abused.
Abigail then drank herself into a stupor, and when she woke, the body was gone. Stephenson said he’d disposed of it and “saved” her. However, the twist at the end of the episode tells a different story: Tania was actually strangled by Stephenson.
"I thought there were enough twists already, and then the final twist was like, 'Oh, this is brilliant, and so believable’,” Whelan said about the final act.
What’s in store for season three?
Like seasons one and two, season three is based on a book by Kate London: in this case, The Tower 3: Gallowstree Lane.
There’s plenty of drama in store, too. A young teenager has been stabbed, and while investigating, Sarah meets Lizzie (Tahirah Sharif), now a mother as well as a detective.
At the same time, she’s having to deal with “DI Kieran Shaw who is running Operation Perseus, an undercover police task force set up to bring down south London drug kingpin Shakiel Oliver".
The synopsis says: "Kieran is working with DC Steve Bradshaw who has gone undercover to infiltrate Shakiel’s empire. The focus of Sarah and Kieran’s conflict is 15-year-old Ryan Kennedy, who witnessed the fatal stabbing but is also a key part of Shakiel’s inner circle.
“As Perseus heads to its shocking climax, Ryan will have a surprising role to play.” Juicy.
Who’s in season three?
Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins, played by Gemma Whelan
The hero and moral compass of the show, Sarah, is tasked with solving some of London’s grisliest cases. Whelan has teased a rough time ahead for her character in season three. “Her moral compass is very north-south,” she said.
"She’s unwavering in her policing by the book but I think this calls that into question a bit this season. It hits her personally… normally she can make a difference because she follows the police book and things work out because you follow the rules.
"And this time, it’s so messy. She’s shown a mirror this season and for the first time, Sarah can’t fix it.”
Whelan is perhaps best known for playing Yara Greyjoy in the Game of Thrones TV series. Born in Leeds, she’s worked as a comedian and appeared in shows such as Gentleman Jack and Upstart Crow.
Constable Lizzie Adama, played by Tahirah Sharif
Lizzie is a rookie cop who is pivotal to the events of season one. Although she lost touch with Sarah, she’s now a detective and a new mother.
Sharif has appeared in shows such as Waterloo Road, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the Netflix Christmas film A Christmas Prince.
DC Steve Bradshaw, played by Jimmy Akingbola
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Steve is Sarah’s former partner on the force, who also works at Homicide Command. He’s gone undercover to try to bring drug dealer Shakiel Oliver to justice.
Akingbola is a Nigerian-British actor who got his first break playing PC Neil Parker in the TV series Holby Blue, then Antoine Malick in Holby City. He’s also a prolific stage actor, playing Othello in a 2008 production at the Lyric Theatre and Winston in a 2013 production of The Island.
DI Kieran Shaw, played by Emmett J Scanlan
Kieran is a police officer who ends up butting heads with Sarah over his handling of Operation Perseus.
Scanlan has appeared in Peaky Blinders, Gangs of London, The Fall, and Guardians of the Galaxy — and the British remake of Call My Agent!: Ten Percent.
Ryan Kennedy, played by Lamar Waves
Ryan is a teenager from London who is heavily involved with Shakiel Oliver’s drug gang. When a fatal stabbing happens, he’s the only witness — but Sarah’s attempts to find out the truth soon come up against Kieran’s operation to take Shakiel down.
Waves, who plays him, is a Croydon-born rapper and actor set to appear in Letitia Wright’s directorial debut film Highway to the Moon.
When does it air?
The show airs at 9pm on Monday, September 2 on ITV1 — set your alarms.
The four-part drama will be shown on subsequent nights in the same slot, with the finale on Thursday, September 5.
