Cop to it! Martin Freeman on The Responder Season 2

British police drama series The Responder centres on PC Chris Carson, played by the series’ co-executive producer Martin Freeman, who won an I-Emmy for the role. This Liverpool-based urgent response officer is crumbling under the weight of years of untreated trauma. The “thin blue line” started looking distinctly morally grey to Chris in Season 1 after he started questioning the justice system – especially once he was paired with idealistic rookie PC officer Rachel Hargreaves (Adelayo Adedayo). 

“Chris is a great mixture of vulnerability and strength,” says Martin, who’s best known for his roles in The Hobbit and the Sherlock series. “There is something about a man of few words that is attractive. People like characters that don’t have to over-explain themselves. What I like about this show is that we weren’t judging him. You don’t always like a person but that doesn’t mean you write them off as a human being completely. Chris doesn’t always have to be doing the right thing, and that appealed to me. He’s not Super Cop, but he is essentially a decent person.”

With The Responder Season 2 ready to binge, and a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ rating under its belt, Martin Freeman chats about what we can expect. Find out why he’s back on the case as Chris.

Binge The Responder Season 2 on Showmax now.

Helping the police with their enquiries: Martin Freeman

At the end of Season 1, Chris was shell shocked from the death of a friend and his own brush with corruption. Where do we find him in Season 2?

It’s six months on and Chris’ relationship with his missus (Kate Carson, played by MyAnna Buring) is in a bad way. He loves his daughter (Tilly Carson, played by Romi Hyland-Rylands), but his marriage is not in a good place. His relationship with his job is terrible and we join him at a point where he’s trying to help himself. In the first series, we saw him attending therapy sessions (with Lynne Renfrew, played by Elizabeth Berrington) provided by the police service but it’s hugely underfunded so this time round he is attending his local church men’s group run by a priest, Father Liam Neeson (Yes, like the actor. Played by Matthew Cottle). He’s trying to help himself and find some light.

In Season 1 Chris claimed that all he wanted was to be a good bobby. What does he want in Season 2?

Chris wants to be a good dad and a happier person but he’s not in a good way and that’s at the heart of the story. It’s not all about Chris but we do see him experiencing different levels of stress, anger and regret. 

How has the relationship between Chris and his former partner Rachel changed and grown since Season 1?

Chris and Rachel’s relationship is thawing out a little now they’re getting a little bit closer. The battle lines between them are coming down a little bit and they’re a bit less spikey with each other. There’s a bit more air in their relationship now so they can look at each other and go, “You’re all right, you’re a good person.” That doesn’t sound very dramatic, but it’s real. I like their relationship a lot for that and the fact they look out for each other, in their own ways. 

When we first met them, Rachel didn’t want to be mentored by Chris because he was a mess. She’d just come out of college and she was on probation and was still thinking she could do it by the book. Chris was in no doubt that you can’t do it like that. In Season 1 they were at opposite ends of the spectrum, but in this series that has all changed. Chris is wanting to be better – a better dad, a better copper – but Rachel is deeply struggling and she isn’t playing it by the book anymore.

How is Chris’ relationship with Kate?

Chris and Kate are not in an easy place. We’ve never seen them in love, in the first flush of that relationship when they, presumably, were a bit more carefree and all that. He was probably a bit less of a nightmare, and she was probably a bit less moany. But they are both those things now. So the stuff with Kate and Chris is pretty heavy.

We meet Chris’ dad (Tom Carson, played by Bernard Hill) in Season 2. Why is he such an important character?

It’s part of Chris’ origin story. We’ve met his mum (Jean Carson, played by Rita Tushingham), now we’re going to meet his dad. As established in the first series, in Chris’ chats with his mum and his chats with his therapist, his dad is a very important figure in his life, and probably the root of his rage. It’s not a straightforward relationship.

Casey and Marco (young drug addicts played by Emily Fairn and Josh Finan, respectively) were such popular characters in Season 1. What can we expect from them in Season 2?

Marco and Casey are brilliant. I’m gutted that I hardly have anything to do with Marco in this series. I have a little bit to do with Casey, but not as much. And I want my money back! Because I want to be with Marco and Casey more as they’re such great characters. Josh and Emily have a certain spark with each other. It’s very easy between them and they became best mates instantly. They’ve taken the role as the naughty school kids at the back of the class in this production, but they both give beautiful performances. Really beautiful.

Tell us about Chris’ new nemesis, Franny (Adam Nagaitis)?

Franny is a major drug dealer and all-round shadowy guy who has a building firm. So ostensibly he’s a builder, but he also runs a massive drug cartel in Liverpool. He is a very charming, likable fellow, but one who will get people killed if it’s in the way of his business interest. Casting Franny was really important, so I asked if we could see Adam Nagaitis because ever since I saw him in The Terror, I thought that he just had something that was scary and very, very beguiling about him. He has that balance of danger and charm.

What got you back into character as Chris?

It’s the accent and the uniform – I move differently and speak differently (Martin swapped his RADA-trained speech for a Liverpool accent). Any accent you do, it’s a physical act and creates a chain reaction from what you’re creating vocally to the rest of you. And the uniform is a big help, it changes how I move and walk because it is so cumbersome and it’s not comfortable.

What was your reaction when you read series writer-creator Tony Schumacher’s scripts for Season 2?

What Tony does brilliantly is let his scripts breathe. Rather than be too plot driven, the drama is story- and character-led, and in Season 2 we get to see more of the lives of the characters we came to care about in Season 1. Tony has been writing for a long time but the fact that this is his first television drama means he is far from having gotten into a comfortable groove. He just put on the page whatever he thought needed to be there, and that is exciting. Sometimes we can mistake a drama for an essay on how human beings are supposed to behave with each other. That’s not what this is, and it is not what it has become for Season 2. 

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