Vigil returns for a third series set in the Arctic

The Arctic Case

The third series of the BBC police thriller Vigil began on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 30 August, with Suranne Jones returning as Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva and Rose Leslie as Detective Inspector Kirsten Longacre.

The BBC says the pair take on a case at a remote Arctic research station where a member of a covert British special forces mission has been murdered. They have to catch the killer and defuse a possible international confrontation as different nations compete for control of the Arctic and its resources in a changing polar climate. The BBC adds that both their careers and their relationship are on the line.

The Guardian's review sets out more of the opening. Four British special forces agents are working undercover at a research centre in the real Arctic territory of Svalbard, which is supposedly demilitarised, and are trying to extract a Chinese scientist who has made a discovery described as capable of saving or destroying the world. They are ambushed by Russians, the scientist escapes, and one of the British agents is later found dead in a Russian enclave.

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Split Storylines and Returning Characters

According to the Guardian, Longacre travels north while Silva is ordered to stay in Scotland, where a Scottish scientist who has flown back from Svalbard for a climate conference is killed by a bomb in his university laboratory moments after Silva approaches him. A climate activist is seen running from the scene.

The Guardian also notes that Silva and Longacre are a couple based in Glasgow, and that Longacre has spent the past year caring for their baby son, Fergal.

Beyond Jones and Leslie, the two sources do not name the other actors in the series three cast, so those roles are not covered here.

Filming in Svalbard

In interview material published by the BBC, Jones says the Svalbard scenes were filmed at the start of the shoot, which helped the team picture that world once production moved back to Scotland.

She describes reindeer outside the breakfast room each morning, driving snow buggies and reaching locations tourists do not normally visit. She also says the heavy layers of clothing became a problem once filming resumed in Glasgow, and that the cast tried local food including moose stew.

Critical Reaction

The Guardian's review, published on 30 August, was unenthusiastic. It called the series twisty and explosive but boring, and said it was hard to root for leads whose main traits amounted to being nice and wearing good glasses.

The paper also questioned the premise, noting that two relatively ordinary detectives keep being assigned cases that could trigger a third world war. It points out that the earlier runs were set on a nuclear submarine, which gave the show its name, and then across a Scottish army airfield and the fictional Middle Eastern country of Wudyan.