The good old Beeb has confirmed that it has commissioned Top Of The Lake Series 2: China Girl, following up on the 2013 debut, which picked up widespread critical acclaim and a slew of award nominations and wins. Produced by See-Saw Films once again, it will see the return of Elizabeth Moss (On The Road) to her Golden Globe-winning role as Detective Robin Griffin and introduces Gwendoline Christie (Game Of Thrones, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens) to the cast.
Air date
Series 2 has been announced for transmission in 2017, but an official air date hasn’t been confirmed as of yet. The first series went out in March 2013, so we’d expect China Girl to have a similar timeline when it airs next year. As with the opening six 60-minute episodes, the new series will be on BBC 2 as another 6 x 60′ mini-series, so it’ll also be available for catchup on BBC iPlayer.
Story
The plot takes us four years on from the climactic denouement at the end of Top Of The Lake Series 1, with detective Robin Griffith (Moss) uncovering a new piece of evidence in case of an unidentified Asian girl’s body that washes up on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. It moves the crime mystery drama from its previous setting in New Zealand, to the didgeridoo and shrimps on the barbie beach life of Australia, but things are far from sun, sea and fuzzy tingle times for the relentless detective.
The case starts to develop beyond an unfortunate runaway story when Robin discovers that the girl didn’t die alone. Suddenly it goes from being hopeless to having at least one lead to follow, but as was the case with the first series, there are a lot of twists and turns to go through before it all comes to light.
Cast
The fact that Elizabeth Moss is being joined by Gwendoline Christie ahead of her Star Wars Episode VIII return to the darker side of the universe only adds to the prospect of Top Of The Lake Series 2: China Girl. The English actress, who was previously most well known for her part as Brienne of Tarth in Game Of Thrones, played Captain Phasma in The Force Awakens and will be reprising the role for the next movie too.
They’ll be joined by David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and Ewen Leslie (The Railway Men).
Production
Academy Award-winning director of The Piano takes up the reigns for the new series, having directed series one to significant critical acclaim. This time around she’ll have a little help from co-director Ariel Kleimann, who takes over from Garth Davis. Campion also returns at the writer with Gerard Lee. Phillippa Campbell and Libby Sharpe will produce the series and Campion, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Jamie Laurenson and Lucy Richer are executive producers.
Filming kicked off for See-Saw Films in Sydney Australia on the 21st March 2016, which backs up our Q1 air date estimate for 2017.
First impressions
With the success and quality of the first series and the addition of yet more acting talent in Gwendoline Christie, Top Of The Lake Series 2: China Girl should be another strong mini-series. It’s a long way away from airing, so it should all hinge on whether or not the creators behind the show can tap back into the momentum of the series.
