Jamie Dornan has opened up about filming the second season of his hit series “The Tourist” on his home turf in Ireland.
The Co Down native reprises his role of Elliot in the second season of “The Tourist,” which debuted on BBC iPlayer on January 1 and will be available on Netflix in the US in February.
While the first season of "The Tourist," which was the UK’s most-watched drama of 2022 across all platforms, was set in Australia, the new season follows Elliot (Dornan) and Helen (Danielle Macdonald) as they travel to Ireland to find answers about Elliot’s identity.
“I hope [viewers] enjoy it as much as the first,” Dornan said upon the release of the new season.
“We are offering up something a bit different purely by geography. I feel like the colour of the Outback, the scale of it and fear was a major character in the first series.
“We've taken that away this time and we have suddenly gone from the orangey dirt of the Outback to the lush green settings of Ireland. Particularly with the first episode, it's like a Tourism Ireland advert.
“It's different and I hope that people are on board with that and get the same sort of satisfaction as they did from the first series.
“The humour is all there, and the story is as mad as the first series.”
Dornan added: "I find, having left Ireland 22 years ago and travelled pretty much everywhere since, there's a real intrigue with Ireland.
"People are just fascinated by Ireland, and I feel like everybody sort of has a bit of a love for the place and the people. Usually, if they've been here, they think of it and speak of it very fondly.
"So hopefully that's a big appeal, we're showcasing Ireland in a big way with loads of Irish talent and some very funny Irish people."
Set and filmed in Ireland, season two of “The Tourist” introduces new characters played by Conor MacNeill, Niamh Cassidy, Diarmaid Murtagh, Nessa Matthews, Mark McKenna, and Francis Magee.
Jamie Dornan in the second series of "The Tourist." (BBC)
Dornan went on to say that filming in Ireland was "amazing."
"The first day of shooting we were in Kilpedder in Wicklow, and I was walking through the trees and the worst rain I think I've ever seen came in and I thought, this is what it's like to film in Ireland," he said.
"I had sort of forgotten it being three or four years since I filmed here but Ireland is beautiful. I've been to parts of Ireland that I'd never been to before. We predominantly filmed in Dublin and Wicklow, but we've managed to travel a little bit outside of there and got to showcase what a beautiful place Ireland is.
"Working with an Irish crew having the same sort of sense of humour has been great. It's been a dream to shoot here."
Dornan separately told Radio Times: "I'm hugely biased but I think Irish people are the best people in the world and I've, luckily, in my life, my career had an opportunity to make loads of stuff in Ireland.
"And I do think there's nothing like an Irish crew. There's a general sort of buoyancy to it, everyone's having fun. They're professional and they work very hard and they're very good at what they do, but there's just a serious level of enjoyment to making art there.
"So I was a very happy boy."
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