film. His father, the obstetrician and
gynaecologist Dr Jim Dornan, once met
Branagh and there was a picture of
them together hanging in the family
home. Dr Dornan died in March, aged
73, after contracting Covid while his
son was in Australia filming The Tourist.
“I was in quarantine when dad passed,”
he says. “I still had three and a half days
in that hotel. It was a mad time.”
“For my dad not to see Belfast reallyhurts,” he says. “I take comfort from
the fact that he knows I did it. Some
people go their whole lives without
being told they’ve made their parents
proud. My dad told me every day.”
His father also had a theatrical
side. He was offered a place at
Rada when he left school, but
his parents made him study
medicine instead. Dornan’s
mother, a nurse, was also
forced to give up her place at
art school, but the family
creativity goes back further. His
grandmother’s first cousin was the
actress Greer Garson, who won an
Oscar for the film Mrs Miniver in 1942
and still holds the record for the long-
est ever Oscar acceptance speech, at
seven and a half minutes.
Growing up, Dornan says he was
“fortunate that my dad gave me the
opportunity to explore my creative
side. I didn’t want to become an estate
agent in Belfast and play a bit of club
rugby at weekends — with the greatest
respect to estate agents in Belfast. I just
felt I had a wee bit more to offer than
that... even though it is lunacy to try to
be an actor. Only 4 per cent of actors
are employed — who in their right mind
would pursue that?”
In Belfast Dornan’s character is
asked whether his father helped him.
“That is hard to watch now,” he says,
“given everything that has happened.”
Seeing a film like Belfast on the big
screen these days is as surprising as
finding the epic scale of The Tourist on
the BBC, although TV is getting bolder.
“Unless it’s a remake, a sequel, made
by Marvel or DC, it’s too much of a risk
in cinema,” he says. “Whereas coming
out of the pandemic people are more
comfortable taking those risks with
what they watch at home. Television
has the ambitions that movies used to
have — The Tourist has hints of Christo-
pher Nolan’s film Memento about it.”
The show’s creators, Harry and Jack
Williams, have a strong track record for
dark, intense psychological thrillers
such as The Missing, Liar and Baptiste.
“We wanted to inject levity and absurd-
ity,” Harry says. “We wanted to break
out of that ‘brothers grim’ reputation
we have. We’re not that grim. We’re
nice. Well, I’m nice.”
They sought to surf the wave of
hyperreality sweeping the small
screen with shows such as Landscapers,
Squid Game and Sex Education that’s a
reaction to the kind of shows they usu-
ally write. “Hyperreality is preferable to
actual reality at the moment,” Jack adds.
“We’ve had a lot of dark television, but
people have been indoors a lot and
domestic noirs are less appealing. We
wanted something cinematic in the sun
with adventure, absurdity and twists.
That opening sequence cost a lot of
money and took ages to shoot. We could
have started the story of a man trying to
find out who he is in a much
smaller way, but the world
is hard and depressing
enough right now.
“You don’t want to
watch dramas that make
you feel any worse
than we all already do,
so we wanted to have
some fun. And, let’s
be honest, have a
massive car chase
with an enormous
lorry because why
wouldn’t you? This is
entertainment.” cGillian Anderson really
pushed for me to be cast
[in The Fall].
I know how
much of a
fight it was
Crashed out Jamie Dornan in The
Tourist. Below: with Gillian Anderson
in The FallThe Girl Before
This four-part thriller
follows a woman
(Gugu Mbatha-Raw)
who moves into
a house designed by
an eccentric architect (David
Oyelowo). He makes occupants
follow certain rules, but what
happened to the girl before?
From tonight, BBC1Emily in Paris
The glitzy Golden
Globe-nominated
series is back, in
style. Haven’t seen
it? As revealed in an
interview this year, you are missing
out on one of the chancellor Rishi
Sunak’s favourites.
From Dec 22, NetflixSpy City
This Cold War spy
thriller stars Dominic
Cooper as an MI6
agent who travels
to Berlin to find
a double agent.
From Dec 23, BritboxThe Amazing
Mr Blunden
Mark Gatiss writes,
directs and co-stars
in this family drama,
adapted from
Antonia Barber’s haunted house
story. There’s a fun time-travel twist.
Christmas Eve, Sky MaxThe Larkins
Bradley Walsh fans
will be glad that
the revival of The
Darling Buds of May
is back. This time the
idyllic Kent village is under threat
from a spate of crime.
Christmas Day, ITVAround the World
in 80 Days
In this adaptation of
Jules Verne’s novel,
David Tennant stars
as a man who takes
on a bet to cross the world in 80
days. From Boxing Day, BBC1Stay Close
Richard Armitage,
Cush Jumbo and
James Nesbitt star
in this eight-part
adaptation of Harlan
Coben’s dark thriller.
From Dec 31, NetflixJake HelmIAN ROUTLEDGECHRISTMAS DRAMAS
The
Tourist is on
BBC1 on New
Year’s Day at
9pm, then on
iPlayer19 December 2021 7