The Tunnel (TV series)

Characters

Stephen Dillane plays Detective Chief Inspector Karl Roebuck of Northbourne Police (a fictional counterpart to the real life Kent Police), an ageing British detective used to getting his own way. Roebuck's role parallels that of Martin Rohde (played by Kim Bodnia), the Danish detective in The Bridge. Karl and Martin share some characteristics, but also differ in certain ways; for instance, Karl is "more educated and a more troubled man". Dillane was drawn to the political questions raised in the storyline, as well as the series' "novelistic telling".

Clémence Poésy plays Capitaine (later Commander) Elise Wassermann of the DCPJ, the French detective and Roebuck's opposite. Wasserman's role parallels that of Saga Norén (played by Sofia Helin), the Swedish detective in The Bridge. Elise shares some characteristics with Saga, including driving a Porsche (in Elise's case, a Porsche 944), picking up men from bars for casual sex, and exhibiting behaviour consistent with Asperger syndrome. The innate seriousness of the character was a trait that Poésy found "quite annoying", but the actress came to appreciate Elise's honesty. Both Dillane and Poésy opted not to view the Scandinavian original series, with the latter stating that it would allow her more freedom in interpreting the character. Poésy dubbed her English lines for the French broadcast.

The series includes several guest stars. Joseph Mawle plays a social worker named Stephen Beaumont, Tom Bateman appears as journalist Danny Hiller, and Tobi Bakare plays Chuks Akinade. Thibault de Montalembert plays Olivier Pujol, who is the head of the Calais police service, and Elise's superior. Sigrid Bouaziz plays Cécile Cabrillac and Cédric Vieira plays Philippe Viot; these characters are police officers who work with Elise. Mathieu Carrière and Jeanne Balibar play banker Alain Joubert, and his wife Charlotte, respectively. Merlin actress Angel Coulby stars as Laura Roebuck, Karl's wife, while Jack Lowden plays Adam, his son. Keeley Hawes guest-starred as Suze Harcourt, a care worker and drug addict, along with Liz Smith, who plays Harriet, an elderly woman under Harcourt's care.

James Frain plays Kieran Ashton, a former colleague of Karl, who faked his suicide and became the Truth Terrorist, serving as the primary antagonist. The character is motivated by the loss of his identity and family, as well as betrayal from Karl by his affair with Kieran's wife before her death. Frain believed that Kieran is the most disturbing character he has played. Portraying the character, the actor wanted to make his actions understandable, though not justifiable.

Cast

Development and writing

The Anglo-French adaption of the Danish/Swedish series The Bridge was first announced by Sky in January 2013. The ten-part series was to be a co-production between British broadcaster Sky and French broadcaster Canal+. Sky Atlantic director Elaine Pyke commissioned the show with the intention of establishing the channel as a home for British dramas following the channel's release of the drama series Hit & Miss and Falcón. Due to the setting of the series, it would be bilingual, with dialogue being spoken in English and French. This made The Tunnel, according to its producers, the first series in British and French television to be bilingual.

Being a "50–50 co-production" between the British and French, the crew were a mix from both countries, and neither party has "final control". The series employed both British and French writers and directors to collaborate on the series, with former Spooks writer Ben Richards leading the writing team. Multiple versions of the script were used, which were translated for both languages. Five directors were hired for the series, three of them British and the other two French. Dominik Moll is considered the head director, with the other directors being Hettie MacDonald, Thomas Vincent, Udayan Prasad and Philip Martin. The series' executive producers are Sky's Anne Mensah; Canal+'s Fabrice De La Patellière; Kudos' Jane Featherstone, Karen Wilson, Manda Levin and Ben Richards; Shine France's Nora Melhli; and Filmlance's Lars Blomgren. Ruth Kenley-Letts is the series producer. Jane Featherstone, the chief executive of the production company Kudos, said of the British–French collaboration: "We have had to work very collaboratively to make sure we are appealing to both nations. I honestly don't know if we have got that right yet. The French like things to be slightly slower, we like them pacier."

In developing the storyline of the series Featherstone said that "the team took what was wonderful from [the original] and then forgot about it, in the nicest possible way, and made their own show." While working for the series, Richards worked with Hans Rosenfeldt, the Swedish writer who created The Bridge. Many aspects of the first episode are virtual copies of the first episode of the Scandinavian series, including: the female lead "stripping unselfconsciously to her underwear in the office", the male lead's relationship with his teenage son, and the "sleazy journalist [being] held captive in his own car with a ticking bomb", the last of which was a sequence Richards wanted to repeat in the remake. However, Richards said that as the series progressed and the drama unfolded the storylines would diverge from the original. Featherstone also noted there would be plenty of changes, saying that many had "seen both [The Bridge and The Tunnel], who feel that they get satisfaction because the characters go on different journeys and the actors all bring a whole new level of interest in it".

Filming and locations

The budget of the series is estimated to be £15 million. Filming began in February 2013 and concluded in August 2013, with location shooting largely taken place in Kent and northern France. Filming in Kent was based in Discovery Park in Sandwich and was supported by the Kent Film Office. A former Pfizer facility was used as a number of sets, including the Calais police station and Elise's apartment. The series was filmed throughout five districts: Canterbury, Dover, Shepway, Swale and Thanet. Several prominent locales were featured, including Folkestone Harbour; The Turner Contemporary art gallery; Westwood Cross shopping centre; and the towns of Dover, Folkestone and Margate. Production also made use of the Kent Film Office's legal powers to close certain roads for uninterrupted filming. An estimated £2.5 million of the budget was spent on, among other services, accommodation, locations, parking and catering, providing a boost for the Kent economy. The filming in France was supported by the Nord-Pas de Calais Film Commission and benefited from the Tax Rebate International. Shooting took place over 31 days across Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais and Dunkerque.

Some scenes of The Tunnel were also shot in the Channel Tunnel itself, which makes the series the first television drama production to do so. The producers spent "months of gentle negotiation" with Eurotunnel, the company that operates the tunnel, for permission to shoot scenes there. Eurotunnel allowed it. According to Moll, "The only thing they didn't want was to see train passengers in danger or fires." Moll also noted that they did not shoot in the actual midpoint of the tunnel, stating "once you are a few kilometres in, it all looks the same."

Filming for series two again took place in Kent and France. The production filmed for 85 days in Kent between April and July 2015, with a further 50 days in the county for pre- and post-production, spending an estimated £1.5 million. The Kent filming locations included Eurotunnel, Folkestone Harbour, Discovery Park, Deal (including the Pier), Folkestone, Dover (including the Port and Dover Castle), Westwood Industrial Estate Margate, Ramsgate, The Barn in Upstreet, St Martin’s Hospital, and Knowlton Court.

Broadcast and ratings

The Tunnel had a world premiere hosted at the international television market Mipcom in Cannes, France on 7 October 2013. In the United Kingdom, Sky Atlantic premiered the series at 9pm on Wednesday, 16 October 2013, and continued weekly until 18 December. The premiere episode was seen by an average of 362,000 overnight viewers, considered strong ratings for the channel. With consolidated ratings taken into account, the first episode went up to 803,000 viewers on Sky Atlantic, with an extra 90,000 viewing from its catch-up channel, Sky Atlantic +1. However, the second episode dropped a third of its overnight audience, leaving it with 236,000 viewers. The finale was seen by 267,000 overnight viewers. In France, the series premiered on Canal+ on 8:55pm at Monday, 11 November 2013. The first episode attracted 1.3 million viewers, marking it as one of the highest rated original series premieres for the channel. The first series was viewed by an average audience of 1.04 million viewers per episode.

Critical reception

The Tunnel received generally positive reviews from television critics. Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy stated that while remakes are "often underwhelming", The Tunnel was "gripping stuff", and he believed that viewers "should find plenty to enjoy" in the series. The performances of Dillane and Poésy were also lauded. Gerard Gilbert of The Independent was positive in his assessment of the series, stating that "as an avid fan of The Bridge, I am happy to report that The Tunnel works well in its own right – it's intelligently made, well cast and ambitiously cinematic", adding that it had "succeeded in its high-risk strategy of re-working a near-flawless Scandi-drama in our Anglo-French image". Ellen E Jones, also of The Independent, said that Dillane and Poésy's performances "stuck closely" to the original characterisation of the leads from the Scandinavian version. Of the execution, Jones stated: "should you bother watching The Tunnel even if you've already seen the original? The early signs are good. The makers obviously have sense enough to preserve what was effective about the original, and invention enough to distinguish their work too."

In a review posted early in the first season, Gerard O'Donovan of The Daily Telegraph expressed mixed feelings about the series "so far at least", saying: "there was no sense that this was doing much different from other mainstream crime thrillers. Sticking too close to the original script meant a golden opportunity was missed to dig deeper into the attitudes and history that both connect and divide the UK and France". However, he also wrote that he would be "happy to be persuaded otherwise if the action develops".

Harry Venning of The Stage believed that, plotwise, the collaboration between the British and French police forces and style were "all very effectively done, creepily atmospheric and splendidly gruesome", but also stated that the best thing about the series was "the interplay between Stephen Dillane's easygoing, laddish, rosbif detective inspector and his po-faced, glacial but – wouldn't you know it – extremely sexy Gallic counterpart, played by Clémence Poésy." Metro reviewer Keith Watson, having rated the series four stars out of five, stated: "the idea is great. But what's surprising about The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic) is that it's less a version of, more a faithful remake."

The Guardian posted a number of reviews on its website. Julia Reaside deemed the series a "perfectly cast remake of Swedish-Danish crime hit", and stated that "this confirms Dillane as one of our very finest. Such control. Poésy is beautifully chilly, and Joseph Mawle (another cracker) leads an asylum-seeker subplot. It's also really funny." Writing about the finale, Reaside said of Dillane's performance: "If this were on a terrestrial channel, he'd be up for all the awards." On the Karl–Elise partnership, she stated: "I wasn't sure about them as a pairing but was immediately convinced by their uncomfortable chemistry." Having not enjoyed The Bridge, Andrew Anthony called The Tunnel an "attractive proposition", adding that "there's an engaging confidence to the slow revelation of the story. All in all, this looks good." Sam Wollaston was more critical of the series, stating that, while the tone was "atmospheric, intriguing, gripping" and there were strong performances from the lead cast members, The Tunnel was "exactly the same as the (recent) original". Wollaston felt that the only "obvious" difference was that, in the original series, there "was a bridge, this is a tunnel. However magnificent an engineering feat the Channel tunnel is, it can't compete as a spectacular location with the Øresund Bridge."

Home media and other releases

The series was first released on DVD in France on 20 December 2013, with special features including a making of feature and interviews featuring Moll and Poésy on a four-disc set. A release in the United Kingdom followed on 13 January 2014 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by publisher Acorn Media UK, and includes three discs, with special features including a making-of feature, cast and crew interviews, and a picture gallery.

Starting on 1 February 2014 in the UK, the first episodes of The Tunnel – along with some other original Sky series – will be released for free on the video sharing website YouTube, in an attempt to attract more Sky subscribers.

In the United States, the first series of The Tunnel was shown on many PBS stations from 19 June through 21 August, distributed by Endemol Shine International.