-More murders and drama and a bit of romance.

-As always, there's something going on in Whitstable.

-Turning up the volume on some of the humor and also hopefully some of the pain.

-Some parts are really, really tense and some parts are so lovely and joyous and light, you can't help but smile.

-A lot more kind of murders and crimes to solve.

-Fertile ground for -- for great drama.

♪♪ ♪♪ -At the end of season one, Mike and Pearl, I suppose, emotionally came together and then split apart, which is where we find them this season.

So I'm Jon Jones, um, "Whitstable Pearl," season two, block one director.

Pearl was discovering a lot about her, I suppose her parents and the secrets within that family and how that affected principally Dolly, um, and her view of her father, which was changed as she discovered certain realities.

-Then he came round to the house and he went out looking for flash.

He found your dad's boat about a mile from it.

I swore him to secrecy about the letter.

-Why?

Because Dad didn't want me to know?

-Because... I didn't want you to carry the weight of it all.

-So you carried it.

-I am Kerry Godliman, and I play Whitstable Pearl.

Pearl Dolan, that's her name.

Pearl is a woman who runs a restaurant in Whitstable, and she also is a private investigator on the side.

Although I think more now in this season, the restaurant is starting to be the sideline, and the PI work is the sort of primary focus.

There was a closure.

There was closure with a story to do with her dad, and a family secret was resolved.

Um, but her relationship with Mike McGuire was ended, I suppose.

She kind of made it clear that she didn't really want to get involved with him at the end of season six.

So don't wait.

Okay?

They spent five episodes trying to get together, and then they got together and then they stopped being together.

-So my name is Howard Charles and I play SCI Mike McGuire in "Whitstable Pearl."

This time, season two.

Well, Mike is a man that is plagued by much.

Uh, there's a lot of pain around Mike, and there's a bit of a tough exterior.

And after the loss of my wife, I sort of went into a spiral of depression, and I wasn't firing -- firing on all cylinders.

Um, and rather than kind of just be, you know, sacked off, I think someone, uh, a colleague of mine probably took some pity on me and thought, "We'll send him somewhere he can't really do any damage."

Um, and so I was sent to wonderful Whitstable.

Um, Pearl and Mike became quite close.

Uh, and we'd hoped that maybe they'd be able to get, you know, even closer and perhaps a bit more official, but that wasn't to be.

It's will they, won't they?

Are they an item, aren't they?

Are they still together?

Are they not?

Were they ever together?

There's all these questions that are happening, but, uh, it's tough.

You know, a man that's still in turmoil and is plagued by loss.

-We both know it's like the War of the Roses between them.

So for the last time, you do not like Kat.

-Well, she's good for Mike.

-Oh, bollocks.

-Oh, Mum, just drop it.

-My name is Frances Barber, and I play Dolly, who is the mother of Pearl.

They together own an oyster bar, a huge oyster bar in Whitstable.

And Dolly's a sort of rather -- She's a very -- She was very political when she was younger.

She was probably in CNS.

She went on marches.

She's very left wing, she's touching, she's funny and comical, and they have a great relationship.

But she's also very complicated.

Dolly, at the end of the last series, things were kind of reconciled in that it was always very bizarre what was going on that she was hiding things.

She was slightly suspicious.

Her behavior was not the kind of behavior that you expect from a mother to a daughter.

But then we discover it was all because she never wanted Pearl to find out that her real father, who she adored, had committed suicide because she thought that she would blame herself and she would never be able to have a future with love in it, because she would be so distressed to hear that he took his own life.

So she took the mantle upon herself for all of that subterfuge.

So she's actually rather a wonderful person, really, and kind of, despite appearances, quite a good mother.

She says about herself, "I'm a wise old bird, and I notice things."

You know, she's been around the block, so she does notice.

And she does know what's really going on here.

-There you are.

Mom!

-Charlie.

-I found him.

I'm Rohan Ned, and I play Charlie Nolan.

Charlie is Pearl's son.

And I think at this point in his life, he's -- He's getting used to the idea that he's going to have to start figuring things out for himself and kind of stand on his own two feet a bit more.

I think after the first season, his introduction to Mike and seeing for the first -- not for the first time, but the first time in his life taking note of an older male figure to kind of look up to and seeing how things went slightly wrong in that relationship has kind of started to push Charlie in a direction where he wants to discover himself a bit more, discover for himself what he feels being a man is like, you know, and being a man of the family and of that household as well.

So I think he's trying to pick up a little bit of responsibility and discover a bit more about who he is.

Charlie had a little moment where he kind of, um, he wanted to square up to Mike.

He was a bit standoffish.

He was like, you know, "Leave my mom alone.

You're messing her about."

Uh, that's where we left him.

So I think we left him kind of him starting to make that journey into that -- that self-discovery.

Um, so... Yeah, kind of discovering him now is a lot of fun seeing where he's at in that transition.

-I'm like a spy or secret agent?

-Yeah.

Well, you're a waitress pretending to be a fruit picker following a homeless bloke, so... -I'm Isobelle Molloy, and my character is Ruby.

In season one, she started with quite a tough journey.

She got involved with the wrong kind of people.

Um, she's someone who puts 100% into everything.

The good and the bad.

Um, and then she met Charlie, Pearl's son, who sort of brought out all of the good in her, really.

And, um -- And, yeah, fell in love.

And they're in sort of lovely, like, teenage relationship that's, um, up and down.

But, um, end of last series, she recovered from her, like, traumatic events that she had at the start, um, when she got involved with drugs and bad people.

And, um, at the end of last series, she's -- she's left, um, happily in love with Charlie.

-5-star accommodation for the zombie apocalypse.

-I think I'll take my chances with the zombies.

-Yeah.

Me too.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cellphone rings ] -Anything?

-Ah, tramps, twitches and weirdos.

You?

-Nothing.

-Wild goose chase.

-I think in series two, "Whitstable Pearl" sort of expands slightly.

The world of "Whitstable Pearl" expands slightly.

-We've got a great team.

We've got great new additions to the cast.

If you enjoyed season one, then there's -- You've got all the more reason to watch season two.

But, yeah, I'm in favor of turning up the volume on all of those things that people loved about season one.

-Again, more of Whitstable.

I mean, it's sort of a very visual show.

It shows the town off, you know, and it's quite a atmospheric place.

-I think there's a sort of sense of the character of the place and the sort of characters that we find in Whitstable.

And I think we're kind of trying to invest more time in -- in the strangeness, I suppose, of Whitstable in a way, or the -- or the unique qualities of Whitstable, which I think we were discovering to some degree in season one.

And I feel we know the place a little more in season two.

-Pearl's far more focused and committed to running her private investigation agency -- Is it an agency -- Or her job or that area of her work.

Um, and she's got a new partner.

She's got a new boyfriend, a guy called Tom.

So she's moved on, really, from Mike, or so we think.

-Well, I think in the second series, it's very much, um, Pearl is much more interested in being a detective now, and she's become, um... Instead of doing it sort of as a hobby, it's now become something that she's very, very keen on.

And therefore Dolly's really taken over running the oyster bar, whereas they did it themselves.

-This season we're seeing a bit more of, uh... pardon the word, but we're seeing a bit more of McGuire acting and kind of trying to really... trying to make an effort to branch out, to be out of my comfort zone, to join a swimming group and to maybe attend this or go -- things that I would probably feel sick doing.

Um, but just trying to make an effort to live my life rather than just simply endure.

I think the colors are probably a bit brighter for McGuire when we meet McGuire in season two.

I think, yeah, the colors are a bit brighter, just a bit brighter for me.

They're not bright, they're a bit brighter.

It's not as gray scale as it was.

-So yeah, I mean, you know, as with the last season, we kind of delve into these worlds.

Because each episode is a story unto itself.

We delve into these little worlds where we find these interesting characters and I suppose their unique take on the world and what they do and how they behave.

-So it's a bit of glimpses of season one, but, yeah, all new mysteries.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Nice and quiet!

-Thank you, mate.

Are you alright?

-Yeah, I'm alright.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Well, where we are today, we're filming in 3 Mills Studio, which does quite a lot of filming.

First series, we actually built a set just outside Whitstable for the interior of Pearl's restaurant.

But this is now the studio for Pearl's interior restaurant.

-Yeah, it's been a year, give or take.

And it's been lovely just to see everyone again and pick up where we left off.

-It's really lovely.

It's really nice to be back with everyone.

Sort of feels like a real family because we sort of shot it last year right in the midst of lockdown.

Um, we sort of created a little bubble, literally of -- of people.

So yeah, it's really nice to be back.

There's some new faces around as well, which is always lovely.

-It's been wonderful being back.

And, you know, especially most of my scenes are with Tizzy.

But it's honestly, like, not a day has gone by.

You come back and you pick up right where you left off, and it's -- it's brilliant.

Yeah.

-Oh, that's been the best part of all of it.

I mean, we really, really sort of fell in love with each other because remember we filmed during lockdown, so we never actually socialized.

So the only time that we socialized with anyone was here in the makeup bus, on the set, in the locations in and around Whitstable.

And, you know, because the rest of us would just go back to our little B&BS or wherever we were staying and the hotels and be on our own because we couldn't go out anywhere.

So we really got on.

The kids are amazing and we just had a great time, so it was great to be back with everybody again.

-In my experience, it's rare that you or that I have come across a team of people in front of and behind the camera who are on top of their game are great people, and there's people that you feel like you can learn something from as well.

And we have that.

Like I said, it's an embarrassment of riches in front of and behind the camera.

There are so many moving parts, it's a wonder that anything gets done.

You know, I think someone once likened it to a helicopter.

It's like a lot of stuff has got to work together for it to be able to take flight.

A TV show is a bit like that.

-Really fun.

It's really fun last year, actually.

It's been really fun.

It's, uh... Yeah, it's a lovely set, genuinely.

And I know everyone says that, but we do laugh a lot, and it's great.

I mean, I think it comes a lot from, um, the performers are very generous and fun people and funny people.

Uh, you know, we have a good crew with a good heart, so... Yeah, it's been lovely.

-He's a prick.

He's a prick in season one.

I said he's a prick.

I would say that's Charlie, though.

-Take one.

-And action.

-Kurz?

Wow.

I babysat for him one time.

Yeah, he showed me Dan's medals from Iraq.

It always stayed with me how proud he was of him.

-Do you remember when you ran away from home?

-Yeah.

-You only got to the end of the road.

-Well, I was only 7.

I, uh [clears throat] never did tell you what I did.

-You used to go to Mar gate to ride on the roller coaster.

-Yeah.

[ Laughs nervously ] Yeah, yeah.

Uh, when you went in the holidays, they wouldn't let me on, so... -Yeah.

Because you were too small.

-Yeah.

Aw.

Poor kid.

Hope he's alright.

-Yeah.

♪♪ -And cut there.

-There isn't as much physical stuff.

Like, last time I was out on a boat and I went -- You know, it was -- There was a lot more kind of physical, uh, nautical based.

I'm very much looking forward to not having to throw myself into the sea this time.

-I don't.

Thank Zeus for that.

I do not have to go in the sea...so far.

Touch wood, I don't know, they might make me, but I don't.

-That's the biggest challenge, I think, so far.

Being freezing cold all day in a soaking-wet wet suit, which was not my favorite day filming in the world.

In a wet suit in Whitstable in the winter.

They're really hard to get into and really hard to get out of.

-Contrary to popular belief, I loved swimming in season one and it taught me a lot about the character straight away because I don't know if you or anyone here or anyone watching has actually done cold-water swimming, but -- Well, obviously it's cold, but you can't think.

Your body goes into survival mode.

You cannot think.

If you're someone who's always in your head and is plagued by what's in your head, it's a wonderful remedy because you can't think.

You cannot think.

I tried it.

You cannot think.

And so using that as a coping mechanism, that -- that was the key for me.

I was right there.

I knew exactly who this person was.

♪♪ -So, are you good?

-The cast is so loving and there's so much humor.

It's often a challenge just to keep my laughter in.

-Okay, Kelly, do you want to go in?

-I'm going to do that.

-So that in itself is a blessing.

You know, being surrounded by people who make the job worth it.

They make it so much fun to be around and to -- and to -- and to exist in.

-Howard's a bit of a prankster, you know?

-[ Chuckling ] Well... -Oh, well.

Yeah.

Howard, I didn't know he was a prankster.

And then he revealed himself to be one.

-I can neither confirm nor deny.

-Howard is the number-one prankster.

He'll get you good.

He'll get you very good.

-And no one missed a beat when you asked him that?

Wow.

-Last season, he got Izzy so good.

And he would have got -- he would have got other people this season if we weren't pressed for time the other day.

-He got me really good last year and he's quite -- I know he's made Kerry jump a few times, so, yeah, I'd say he's our biggest prankster.

-Oh, no, there's no way you can know all of Howard's tricks.

Howard has an infinite amount of tricks up his sleeves, and you've no idea when he's going to pull one, so you just have to be on your toes.

-It's a great way to break the ice.

Uh, it's a wonderful source of entertainment.

-It's just -- It's just enjoying each other's company and having a good -- a good laugh and hoping we make something that makes other people smile as well.

You know, there's generally a feeling of warmth and the atmosphere is fun as well as getting on with the work.

[ Siren wailing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -Evening, sir.

Can I see your license, please?

-The season opens with quite a serious storyline, really, about an ex-soldier and his demons and the relationship of Whitstable, I suppose, to him, and how Whitstable views him.

-There are a couple of big moments in episode one where we see characters, perhaps in a little bit more danger than we usually see them, so I think there may be a slight raising of the stakes this season, which is something we can look forward to.

-I suppose there's a sort of element of overcoming prejudice in the first story, which, you know, I certainly found really appealing.

Um, so we set something up and then I suppose show -- show the underside of it and the truth of it and how we learn that possibly we shouldn't just, um, take for red, uh, how people behave and why they behave in certain ways.

-For the first episode, first day I was in shooting, I was doing a little bit of running and a little bit of leaping and jumping.

You know, every actor, they've got that list of things they want to do in front of a camera, being chased through a forest, handle a sword, cock a gun.

Um, yeah.

I'm looking forward to knocking a couple of those off my list, and the first episode does let me get a couple of those done.

-Out and about in Dover.

So we're in rough ground and going down ropes and all sorts of things just to get to various locations.

So episode one, physical challenges, I think.

[ Thunder rumbling ] -[ Man yells indistinctly ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Yells ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Line ringing ] -Police, please.

-So episode two.

[ Chuckles ] Undoubtedly, episode two is extraordinary because episode two, the best way to describe it really is a sort of homage to "Rear Window," which is -- the Hitchcock film "Rear Window" and the book.

Um, but, um, the Hitchcock film was built on this huge soundstage where they built a whole sequence of a block -- you know, blocks of flats, uh, where you could actually see everything that was going on.

And we had to basically find a building where we could do similar, where we could actually see into all these buildings and all these flats to tell a very similar story or a sort of -- Yeah, a story that was an homage to that.

That was incredibly difficult.

And then to actually try and get all these actions to knit together in these -- in this building, so that, for us, involved some, you know, some visual effects to basically put the -- to put Mike's window in front of this -- this building where everything happens and it required every scene to be shot about three or four times to make up the various elements of it in different places.

Uh, so it was kind of -- it was fun.

I mean, it was very funny, some of the stuff, because you've got all these people living their lives in this apartment block, and we got these actors and we rehearsed and they're hilarious because they're just living these crazy lives.

And, you know, someone's getting drunk up there and someone's doing this here.

And it was wonderful.

And we were sort of filming it while absolutely in stitches.

But it was also really challenging to put all that together and create it, um, as a story with Mike sitting with his broken leg, watching all of that.

So that was hard.

-But it's all done now, right?

This case.

The, um -- The late night stakeouts.

-Yeah.

The case is closed.

-Do you think about it often, being a cop again?

-All the time.

-Well, Mike ought to be worried because you'd have his job in no time.

-Mm.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-I don't get it.

She looks happy.

-There is romance between both Mike and Pearl, but unfortunately not with each other.

They've both got -- They both moved on.

They've both got new partners.

-There's a person I'm seeing, and Pearl's seeing someone else.

Um, and so I'm -- I'm trying to put the pieces of the puzzle back together.

-Pearl has a new boyfriend who Dolly hates because she doesn't think he's racy enough for her.

And Pearl really likes him, but Dolly is quite horrible to him.

And that's played by the wonderful Robert Webb.

-He's very funny, and just filming those scenes between Tom and Pearl are just joyous because, you know, they bring a lot of comedy bones to those scenes and they're always fun.

-Oh, it's been a lot of fun.

It's been really lovely working with Robert.

He's great.

-When I was married, I got close to someone at work.

-A teacher?

Did she lock you in the maths cupboard?

-Ha-ha.

-Take advantage of you.

-It wasn't like that.

-Like what?

-Physical.

-Oh.

-We didn't, you know -- We didn't even kiss.

My therapist called it emotional infidelity.

-Sounds hot.

I think there's still a bit of attraction to Mike, but I think she pushes that down because Mike, he seems to represent things that don't make her feel safe and don't make her feel happy, even though she can't help herself and she is attracted to him.

-I think she -- It's because Dolly is wiser and older.

She's an old bird.

She notices things and she realizes that Pearl has never got over Mike, despite the fact -- despite whatever the two of them are fighting against, they both are mad about each other.

-They both opted for people that are probably better for them.

He's with the lovely Kat, but they just can't help being attracted to one another.

And it sort of persists.

-With Kat and McGuire, they're -- they're both people who are suffering and have experienced grief.

It's very fresh and their -- their wounds, they've got different ways of dressing those wounds and dealing with the grief.

Even though Kat is perfect in so many ways and right for Mike, it's just...you're not Pearl, you know?

And so hopefully we're going to have that coming up, too.

I don't know to to what extent yet, but uh -- but there should be some... high octane drama, I would say -For now, Pearl's with Tom, you know.

And for now, Mike's with Kat.

Maybe Kat and Tom should be together.

But, um... Yeah, these are the dynamics of romance.

-That's what pulls people along as well.

So the detective element, of course, the mysterious incidents that happen in each episode, the murders to solve, the robberies to solve, all that.

But it's the two of them getting back together as well, I think is, you know, for me, watching as a viewer, I would love that, you know, is it ever going to happen?

We do know that Dolly was on Tinder and she was having dates on that with much younger, much more unsuitable men.

Um, but she's always out there looking for love, looking for a relationship, looking for companionship, and urging her daughter to do the same thing.

Um, and she certainly does end up with somebody very unlikely in series two, who she doesn't realize has been living in her shed as a sort of dosser and using her milk.

And so she thinks she's going a bit mad because of it, but then she ends up moving him in so [laughs], you know, she's not to be put off by any circumstances whatsoever.

But whether that lasts remains to be seen.

We don't quite know that yet.

-Charlie's -- Charlie's happy.

Charlie's very happy with his love life at the minute.

We do have kind of, you know, a little bit of trouble in paradise at the start.

But I think for him, Ruby was someone he'd always had his eye on from the get-go from before season one was season one.

Um, so he's so happy to be settling down and to be, uh, in a happy, functioning relationship that he feels is going in the direction that he wants to be going in.

So they're both very happy with each other for the most part.

-We've got a great team.

We've got great new additions to the cast.

Um, our crew is just as strong as ever.

So it's we've still got that family spirit, um, which, believe me, goes a long way into telling stories like this.

We've got good people in front of and behind the camera, um, and, uh, and so, yeah, I fully anticipate this to be just as, if not more successful than season one.

-Beautiful white cliffs of Dover and the scenery again in Margate and Whitstable, and all the things that made the first series so successful.

-Once we sort of spent time in Whitstable, we realized that Whitstable was a much kind of fonder place.

It was an extraordinary warmth that I think we discovered, and that I think developed from season one through to season two, where I think we're much more at home with the sense of, you know, the goodness of a lot of people, the goodness of Pearl and the goodness of characters.

-You need good characters.

And, um, and we do have good characters in front of and behind the camera and hopefully in the story as well.

So it's, uh, you know, all of those things make for, uh, like I say, it's fertile ground for good storytelling.

So, yeah.

-There is a sort of sense that people aren't necessarily bad, although bad things happen.

Uh, and most of the, you know, in the storylines, they're very much -- there's a reason behind the -- the various crimes, murders, and so on and so forth.

And I find that really appealing and that I don't think we look at any character in the whole show and say, this person is profoundly evil.

Um, I think everyone is profoundly human.

Um, whether they're, you know, the victim, the villain, the person who solves the crime, Pearl, you know, they're -- they're human and humane.

-If you're coming back for the same thing, you're not going to be disappointed.

There's going to be mystery.

There's going to be drama.

There's going to be emotion.

-And, yeah, new relationships forming.

Um, a bit of the past coming back.

-But, yeah, it's rich drama and conflict.

Um, and that's the name of the game, right?

I'm sure it'll be exciting to watch.

[ Sirens wail ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪