“The Fall” is a successful TV series that aired on BBC for three years, and more specifically from 2013 until 2016.
- The Fall is a crime drama television series.
- It was filmed and set in Northern Ireland.
- The lead actors are Gillian Anderson as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, and Jamie Dornan ad Paul Spector.
- It is created and written by Allan Cubitt.
- Jamie Dornan portrays a serial kille.
- It was produced by Artists Studio.
- It was shown on RTÉ One in the Republic of Ireland and BBC Two in the UK.
- Currently the series is also available on Netflix.
- The plot is about a seemingly cold but very passionate policewoman that goes head to head with a seemingly passionate father who is in fact a cold serial killer in this procedural out of Belfast. The only thing they share is their common complexity.
- The series premiered in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland on RTÉ One on 12 May 2013
- In the rest of the United Kingdom it aired on BBC Two on 13 May 2013
- The second season began in the Republic of Ireland on 9 November.
- In the UK on 13 November 2014.
- The third season premiered on RTÉ One on 25 September.
- It aired on BBC Two on 29 September 2016.
- The third season was the last one.
- Cubitt said that he originally was researching another show he was planning on writing and read a book on the BTK (“Bind, Torture, Kill”) serial killer, Dennis Rader.
- Cubitt found the structure of the book intriguing, which began with a look at the BTK Killer’s attack that was possible because of Rader’s testimony, his documentary evidence and the extensive forensic evidence that was gathered from the scene of the crime.
- Cubitt created a structure where the killer is identified immediately, eliminating the whodunit aspect of many stories. The focus could then become the motives for the killings and on the insights that might be gained about the psychology of the killer, even in the face of what might be considered a normal, functioning person with a job, wife and children.
- Cubitt said this was the starting point that interested him: how this supposedly normally functioning person would then be connected to the crimes.
- Gillian Anderson declared that Stella Gibson is her favourite among all of the characters she has performed, even more than Scully from The X Files (1993).
- Jamie Dornan originally auditioned for the part of a police officer.
- Many characters are named after guitars or things related to that world, like makers (ex. Spector, Burns, Stagg). Smith (named for Paul Reed Smith or PRS guitars). Benedetto (taken from a jazz guitar company).
- Stella Gibson is actually a double guitar name.
- All of the episodes names are borrowed from lines in John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost.”
- Jamie Dornan was born in the same city where the story develops (Belfast, Northern Ireland).
- Jamie Dornan indicated he watched a lot of Dexter(2006) in preparation for a role. That role was surely this one.
- Cubitt wrote Katie’s songs and played guitar as she sings.
- The character of Paul Spector, like Stella Gibson, is named after two types of guitars, the Spector guitar (named after Stuart Spector) and the Les Paul guitar.
- As with previous seasons, season 3 premiered on Ireland’s RTE One on the Sunday evening, a full five days before it premiered on the UK’s BBC Two the following Thursday. This has been part of a long-standing agreement between the BBC and RTE for certain co-productions.
- Gillian Anderson and John Lynch also played ex-lovers in Bleak House (2005) where their affair ended prior to the beginning of the story, although they do not share any screen time.
- The safe house used by Liz Tyler was given the address of The Esplanade, Bangor; whereas it was actually The Esplanade in Holywood – a town between Belfast and Bangor – where Jamie Dornan was raised as a child with his older sisters Liesa and Jessica.
- Colin Morgan and John Lynch previously played father and son in BBC’s Merlin (2008).
- Additionally, Colin Morgan and Stuart Graham also played father and son in the Irish independent film Parked (2010).
- As well as guitar related character names, the operation name chosen is Musicman – the branding for Ernie Ball guitars.
- This is not the first television series Ian McElhinny & Michael McElhatton have appeared in together.
- They first appeared in the HBO series Game of Thrones as main characters Sir Barriston Selmy & Roose Bolton respectively.
- An ultra-dark cross-over fan theory, early on in the tv series run, suggested that Paul Spector could actually have been the twin brother of Jamie Dornan’s other “sexual deviant” character Christian Gray, of the “Fifty Shades of Gray” film series.
- During the series run, it was noted that the character of Stella was also seemingly a type of sexual predator, but more along the lines of a conventional “Cougar”, rather than Paul’s ultra-extreme “sexual” fetishism
- In series 1, 3 of the key supporting cast lead actors would later appear in the Channel Four “Derry Girls” as main characters.
Melody says
i missed the piece where the painting by henry fuseli was introduced. The Nightmare. This is a painting that i love, having seen it in the Detroit MI (USA) Institute of Arts back in the 70s. It is still there. Reason being, I had nightmares as a child, and have learned to wake myself up from them. how was this painting introduced in the making of the movie, if anyone can give me which episode i would appreciate it.