Where Was Vigil Series 3 Filmed?

It’s been three years since we left DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) and DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) building their life together in Scotland after unpicking a complex conspiracy in the Middle East that led to a drone attack in Dundair – but this Sunday there’s a knotty new crime to unpick.

In high-stakes police procedural drama Vigil, both officers are accustomed to solving crimes by conducting interviews, gathering forensic evidence, reviewing CCTV, and executing warrants – as all police officers so routinely do. But Vigil details what happens when authority gets murky. In series 1, this saw DCI Silva infiltrating a Royal Navy submarine, while in series 2 she found herself on the British Air Force drone base in the Middle East; in both cases, military command routinely tried to lock her out of the inner workings, obfuscating the crimes that were committed there. As lead star Jones puts it, ‘All of the Vigil series are about fighting for truth, coming up against the bigger picture and wanting the world to be a better place. Amy and Kirsten are kept in the dark with what they’re being told and it’s their job to find the gaps and piece it together.’ Thanks to Silva’s dogged pursuit of the truth and Longacre’s help back home, on both occasions the duo solved the conundrum before them.

Suranne Jones in Vigil series 1. (BBC)

In the background, Silva and Longacre are building a life together. ‘In the first series you see Amy and Kirsten meet, and they start this relationship,’ Jones says. ‘In the second series, Kirsten is pregnant and in this series, you see them as a real family. We’re proudly representing two women that are now together, they’re married, they have two children.’

In series 3, both Silva and Longacre are on the ground to solve their iciest case yet. At an Arctic research station, far off the north coast of Scotland, a British special forces officer has been killed – while carrying out a covert mission. ‘Series 3 begins with a discreet request from the British military: a death has occurred and serious questions raised, but it’s imperative that any British police investigation should appear low-key,’ says Vigil’s creator, writer and executive producer Tom Edge. ‘Accordingly, Kirsten is dispatched to investigate, but Amy is quickly drawn in as an assassination in Scotland points to a sophisticated conspiracy both at home and in the frozen north.’

‘In this series in particular I think Amy is a bit more ruthless and reckless once her eyes are open to what’s going on, as there are lots of different countries at play and no-one can truly be trusted,’ Jones says. ‘I like it that she has a bit of fight back because she’s just not going to play by the rules herself anymore, because no-one else is.’

Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie filming Vigil series 3 in Svalbard. (BBC)

Where Was Vigil Series 3 Filmed?

Much of the action of the third series of Vigil is set in Svalbard in the Arctic Circle – and the series was filmed on location here, too. Part of Norway, Svalbard is a remote Arctic archipelago located midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The largest island is Spitsbergen, where the archipelago’s largest settlement, Longyearbyen, one of the world’s northernmost settlements, sits on the west coast with a population around 2,600. Jones describes filming up there as ‘such an experience,’ adding it ‘allowed us to get a real feel of the world that we were inhabiting’.

‘Rose and I felt like we were just on top of the world because we went to places that tourists don’t normally visit since we were filming in such remote locations. There were reindeer outside the breakfast room every morning, we got to drive the snow buggies, and we really had to layer up – the problem was when we got back to Glasgow we were too hot because we still had to film with all our layers on!’

When Longacre boards the ship with Henrik Becken (Jeppe Beck Laursen) and Colonel Fyodor (Tornike Gogrichiani), they actually filmed on board a real ship in the Arctic Circle, ‘sailing for two hours towards a glacier,’ Leslie says. ‘Then we went into the cabin all feeling seasick – but that’s one way to bond!’ For Norwegian actor Laursen, the fact that part of the tale is set in Norway was pleasing – though he had never actually been to Svalbard. ‘I didn’t realise how big it was, so when you fly into Svalbard you realise just how huge it is,’ he says. ‘It was magical to film there.’

DI Kirsten Longacre (ROSE LESLIE) in Vigil series 3. (BBC)

‘The people and the crew in Svalbard were incredible and we tried some moose and reindeer, which is part of the local cuisine – I had moose stew! Overall, it was such an incredible experience and a great start to the shoot,’ Jones adds. Though downtime was scant, the star found a pocket of time to visit a husky cafe, ‘where you get to have a coffee and meet retired husky dogs!’ At the end of a long day of shooting bundled up in heated gilets and gloves, Jones says: ‘Rose and I would have the soup from the hotel we were staying in, and it was everything you would hope somewhere like Svalbard would have – a warm open fires and throws. It was just gorgeous to warm up at the end of the day.’

Co-star Naomi Yang, who plays Shen Jia, had a little more spare time off-camera. ‘There was one day in Svalbard where a very small team of us went to a glacier,’ she recalls. ‘I was hiking in my crampons up this glacier. We were with someone with a rifle, because we had to have a rifle with us all the time in case it was needed to scare off polar bears. The glaciers are very blue, due to the way the light is reflected. I just remember all of us just being like “wow, we can’t believe we’re in this”.

Shen Jia (NAOMI YANG) in Vigil series 3. (BBC)

‘More generally, with this series being set in part in the Arctic, the scale feels huge,’ Yang adds. ‘At the beginning, when we were shooting in Svalbard, I was with the SBS (Special Boat Service) boys a lot. It was like having four brothers with me all the time, so that was a lot of fun. We were spending a lot of time together in Svalbard, and it was completely new to all of us. We saw reindeer, we went on boat trips together, and it was just so much fun being there.’

Lots of series 3 was also shot in Glasgow, just as with series 1 and 2. ‘It was so lovely to be back in Glasgow and, having grown up there, I have such a deep fondness for Scotland,’ Leslie says. ‘It was also very thrilling to be so far north for filming in Svalbard. The landscape was luna, or what I imagine the moon would look like. I felt so fortunate to experience almost complete isolation on the mountain tops. We had really bulky snowsuits which kept us nice and warm, along with the feet warmers and woolly hats.’

Amy Silva (SURANNE JONES) in Vigil Series 3. (BBC)

Why Svalbard?

‘For series three we wanted to look ahead to the root causes of potential conflicts,’ Edge explains. ‘Rare earth metals seemed like a niche but promising story. These are the materials required to make many modern technologies work, including most green energy infrastructure.

‘I think that the battle to secure resources is going to become increasingly fraught and will bring areas like Svalbard into sharp focus,’ Edge adds. ‘Series 3 is our take into a world that feels niche today but could be fundamental to tomorrow’s geopolitical manoeuvrings. Plus, icebergs!’

Oli Pickford (BENJAMIN WAINWRIGHT), Mark Cunningham (STEVEN MILLER), Shen Jia (NAOMI YANG), Simon Anderson (JORDAN DUVIGNEAU) & Hugo Abernethy (GERRY LYNCH) in Vigil series 3. (BBC)

The Cast

• Suranne Jones as DCI Amy Silva
• Rose Leslie as DI Kirsten Longacre
• Gary Lewis as Detective Superintendent Robertson
• Dominic Mafham as Sir Ian Downing
• Orla Russell as Poppy
• Jeppe Beck Laursen as Henrick Becken
• Naomi Yang as Shen Jian
• Tornike Gogrichiani as Colonel Fyodor
• Steven Miller as Mark Cunningham
• Benjamin Wainwright as Oli Pickford
• Danusia Samal as Jasmin Kelly
• Eric Godon as Korotayev
• Amy Manson as Lorna McCallister

DI Kirsten Longacre (ROSE LESLIE) in Vigil series 3. (BBC)

WATCH

Vigil series 3 begins Sunday night at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer, followed by episode 2 at 9pm on Monday. New episodes air at the same time weekly.