Sophie Rundle On The Return Of ITV Cli-Fi Drama, After The Flood

One of ITV’s top dramas of 2025 is back for another series this weekend, with Sophie Rundle reprising her role as Detective Joanna Marshall – this time sans baby bump. We sat down with the Peaky Blinders star to find out more about After the Flood series 2.

Q&A: Sophie Rundle On After The Flood

After the Flood is back. Can you give us an elevator pitch for the show?

The show follows Joanna Marshall, my character, who was training to be a detective in Waterside police force in series 1. She was born and bred in the local community, and her dad was a very brilliant detective before he passed away a couple of years ago. She’s still dealing with that. She works alongside her husband, and in series 1, she was pregnant when there was a huge flood and a body was found. All was not as it seemed, and she was dragged into a murky pool of corruption. It also has the element of climate change and its effects on small communities.

Series 2 opens a year on from the end of series 1. Jo has her baby now, and is dealing with the after effects of everything that happened in series 1: DS Phil Mackie (Nicholas Gleaves) is corrupt, and Jo and her husband Pat (Matt Stokoe) are striving to bring him down. She is still reeling from the revelations of series 1: Who is a goodie? Who is a baddie? Who has been lying, and who hasn’t? And then in amongst that, a body turns up on the local moorland, and again, all is not quite as it seems. Jo gets a chance to put her detective prowess to the test, but again it leads her further and further into the underbelly of this small community.

Sophie Rundle as Joanna Marshall in After the Flood. (© ITV/Quay Street Productions)

How would you describe Jo?

Jo is salt of the earth. She is loved in her community, and is a really good person – but she is also tenacious to the point of being slightly unhinged. In a nice way! She is determined to the point of a blind spot, with a really fierce moral compass. Where a lot of people would stop at the point of self preservation, she doesn’t have that – she just pushes through and doesn’t think about the fallout. It’s what you need from a protagonist, to propel you further than most people would go. 

I really like playing her, and I love the dynamics of the people around her. I think Mick (Ford) writes the dynamic between Jo and her mum Molly (Lorraine Ashbourne) beautifully. Those scenes are so fun to do, and I think that’s something about the show a lot of people like: it feels like a real family in a real community.

How did it feel to return for series 2?

We didn’t know there would be a second series – it was recommissioned off the back of people watching it and loving it. So it was really nice coming back with most of the same cast and crew. There was a real sense of cohesiveness between the two series. And I was very pleased to not have to wear the pregnancy bump this time! That was a real drag by the end [of series 1].

It was a lovely shoot. Everybody was so fun and when there are so many new characters – like Jill Halfpenny and Alan Armstrong – you don’t know if it’s going to change the alchemy. But actually they came in and brought an amazing new energy.

Do you have any standout moments from filming?

Doing stunt stuff is always really good fun. There’s a different energy when you’re doing sequences like that. There was also a lovely day when we were out on the moors shooting one of the sequences where a body is discovered. The weather was so unpredictable: we had snow, hail, thunderstorms, burning hot summer weather, the whole mix. It has been a really horrible couple of days chucking it down with rain, but then we had this blissful sunshine. So we were trying to tell this story about murders on the moorland, but when we broke for lunch it was bright sunshine, so everyone was there in their T-shirts sitting on a big grassy verge eating lunch like a massive school picnic. It was the first time the director had to be like a teacher. Like, ‘Come on, guys, let’s get back to work!’

We don’t often get to see climate fiction like this. Tell me a bit about that.

I think it’s an unavoidable part of modern life now, isn’t it? And we have to find a way to explore it and communicate about it. It’s very easy to be overwhelmed by the discourse around climate change, and it can feel almost self flagellating to talk about. It’s an enormous issue, and you feel like, ‘Well, what can I do about it?’ 

It can be too much to live with that feeling every day, so distilling it down to the implications on a small community that looks just like your own makes it feel much more immediate, tangible and more approachable. If we can absorb climate change into our entertainment, then maybe we can find a way to engage with it as a concept. That’s what After the Flood does well. It’s there, but we’re not beating you over the head with it. It’s just an inevitable factor of modern life. Take from that what you want to, and hopefully it sparks conversation in a way that is instructive and enlivening rather than chastising.

Jill Halfpenny as Sam Bradley & Sophie Rundle as Joanna Marshall in After the Flood. (© ITV/Quay Street Productions)

Anything in the series you’re particularly excited for audiences to see?

There is a great finale that will be quite surprising. If people come back because they like the characters, I think series 2 really does justice to them, and moves them into a new place. There are lots of new dynamics to explore. It’s great to see Jo and Pat navigate parenthood and the way that changes your life. There’s nothing apologetic about series 2. It’s coming in with just as much gunfire as series 1.

Anything you can tease about the possibility of a third series?

I don’t know! They never tell actors, because we can’t be trusted. We’re the last people to know! If there were to be a series 3, it would be based on whether people watch series 2 or not.

Do you have any other roles in the pipeline that you’re excited about? 

There are some things I can’t talk about, but obviously the Peaky Blinders film is coming out this year – that was nice to revisit.

What was it like to film the Peaky Blinders film?

It was great! I had just had my second son, so it was all a bit of a blur. The whole last year has all been a bit of a blur of new babies and revisiting parts I’ve played at different points in my life, but feeling much older and more tired. In my year of postpartum with my second son, it was nice to do two jobs that were familiar, but kind of scaled up and made new. There was a comfort in that.

Do you have a project that you look back on as a favourite?

Peaky Blinders is obviously one, because that has straddled the entirety of my professional career. After the Flood has been a really joyful job, just because of the people involved, in front and behind the camera. And getting to do it with Matt, who plays Pat, who’s my real life partner, was strange and lovely. I also love filming in Manchester, which is where we film this. It’s always a nice gift when you get to go and spend a couple of months up there.

Excluding Matt, who has been your favourite actor to work with in the past?

I love working with Lorraine Ashbourne, who plays my mum [in After the Flood]. I love her and get so excited around her – I think she is one of our best actors. She has an amazing energy. The scenes with Jo and Molly are some of my favourites because they are so real. I also love Suranne Jones, who’s a really good friend of mine. Cillian Murphy is amazing, obviously, and seeing his career trajectory has been amazing. I feel very privileged to think I’ve worked with some of the most amazing actors we have in this country. It’s one of the best parts of the job. I didn’t know Jill and Alan [before After the Flood], and I they were both completely delicious people. It was a real treat.

Lorraine Ashbourne as Molly & Sophie Rundle as Joanna Marshall in After the Flood. (© ITV/Quay Street Productions)

How do you find balance between your personal and your work lives, especially raising a young family?

Everybody will recognise that sometimes you find it and sometimes you don’t. It’s constantly about righting the ship. The only way you can do it is with help. There’s no point for a second pretending you have it all under control yourself. It is about help across the board, family, having a very supportive, understanding partner, outsourcing help. When we filmed After the Flood, our amazing parents helped look after my eldest son, and then I brought the baby with me for part of it, and we had an amazing nanny. It’s a team effort. And working very immediately postpartum, it was great having people who understand and are prepared to be flexible. You don’t always get it right, but when you do get it right, it’s brilliant. And when you don’t, you’re more tired than you think it’s possible to be! But you just have to keep pushing forward. 

It was very strange filming After the Flood. I would leave my one year old at home, change his nappy and give him his breakfast. Then I would go to work and be given somebody else’s one year old. And obviously Matt was there playing the baby’s dad, but it was not our baby. It was so strange. That was all a bit of a sort of a head scramble!

How do you think we can all live a little bit better?

I don’t know, but if you find out, tell me! It’s so volatile and noisy, modern life. I think patience and empathy is the only way forward. To try and soften and listen and be less reactive. Be patient with yourself. Eat a lot of chocolate biscuits. Try not to get too hung up on anything.

Sophie Rundle stars in After The Flood, returning Sunday night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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