Nicola Walker Explains Why ‘Annika’ Breaks the Fourth Wall
Fall Preview
The cases aren’t cold, but the climate sure is in Annika. Nicola Walker’s latest Masterpiece Mystery! casts the Unforgotten alum as Annika Strandhed, new chief of Glasgow, Scotland’s Marine Homicide Unit. Smart and skilled, she can pilot a boat and break the fourth wall to share.
“You are her confidant,” Walker says. “She’s not speaking to you just for effect. She’s talking to you because that’s how she works out her life.”
What’s to work out? Besides being the single mom of a rebellious teen (Silvie Furneaux), she supervises a colleague (Jamie Sives) irked about being passed over for her position, as well as two junior investigators (Katie Leung and Ukweli Roach).
Also helping the detective inspector solve murders: literature and folklore. In the first of six episodes, a man who was harpooned calls to mind Moby-Dick’s theme of obsession. Turning to the camera, Annika can’t resist quipping, “Death by harpoon suggests someone is trying to get a point across.”
Annika, Premieres Sunday, October 16, 10/9c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2022 Fall Preview issue. For more first looks at fall’s new shows, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.
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