‘It’s a bit of a smack in the face, this show’, says Jamie Dornan of The Tourist

The first season was set in the Australian Outback, Elliot waking up in hospital after a car crash with no recollection of who he is. (Let alone who the Spice Girls are or what type of Mexican burrito he likes).

This time, Elliot’s journey of ill-advised self-discovery takes him to the windswept shores of Ireland to trace his roots on his home turf. (He has an Irish accent, for those not in the know).

He’s barely touched down before he’s abducted and dragged into a longstanding feud between two rival crime families.

So far so apt.

“It’s a bang, this show,” says The Fall star Dornan. “It’s a bit of a smack round the face – in a good way.”

Well, quite. On what’s to come in season two, he says “mad, mad stuff happens, really mad again – that is what’s great about it, just when you get comfortable, it changes, just when you think it’s settling in to become one form of entertainment, something nuts happens and you’re knocked sideways”.

Last series, Elliot took Helen (Dumplin’s Danielle Macdonald), a slightly befuddled local probationary officer, hostage.

They’ve since patched things up – and are now in love. The slight catch is that she becomes inextricably entangled in his murderous chaos.

As series two rolls out, “we see them in a place of happiness and contentment,” explains Dornan, 41, “and then lots of stuff happens that breaks that idyll.”

“It’s two people coming from, for very different reasons, complicated situations,” he continues. “Helen breaking away from the restraints of Ethan (her ex-fiance) and the madness of Elliot’s past catching up with him, going through the accident, all these unanswered questions.

“Helen – so much of it is how beautifully Danny plays her – but Elliot’s scratching around trying to find something good in his life.

"Everything that’s been revealed to him about his past in the first series is horrid. And he’s sitting there like, ‘what’s going on?’ What can he cling to? What sort of hope does he have?

“And Helen represents that hope. Someone who is just evidently good. So I feel that there’s a real want for him to have that goodness and that stability and that love in his life.”

“I think from Helen’s perspective, it’s the same thing,” continues 32-year-old Macdonald. “In the same way that he needs something good, he’s the only man that’s ever accepted her and loved her for who she is.

"And so I think they both get something from the other that’s very pure. But then there’s all this other s*** going on around it to be honest.”

While partners can sometimes come with baggage or closet-lurking skeletons, Elliot’s are of another order entirely. Poor Helen. Does he ever feel guilty about dragging her into his mess?

“Quite probably,” Dornan says. “That’s emphasised a bit in the second series with moments of like, this is the last thing he wants for her.

"But it was Helen’s idea to go back to Ireland, as much as I was open to it, she really wanted that for Elliot – and then we get there and it’s a monumental s***show of mad history and family dynamics and really bleak revelations.

"And there are moments of ‘we shouldn’t have done this,’ but he also still wants to find answers.”

The Tourist is an often ridiculous amalgamation of humour and violence, undoubtedly part of its wide appeal.

Its first foray into the UK television landscape in 2022 saw it become the most-watched drama of the year, amassing a whopping 11.4 million viewers.

The offbeat comedy is characteristic of writers and creators Harry and Jack Williams, the pair behind The Missing and Call the Midwife, who also produced dark-comedies Fleabag and Back to Life.

Over chicken wings the brothers showed Dornan the first iteration of the script for a potential second season, and “I just thought it was f****** mad just the way they are, and funny, and confusing”, he says.

“We knew there was a want for it because there was a big reaction from the public here, and certainly in Australia and definitely in the United States a bit,” he continues.

“So if there was an appetite for it, and a good story to tell, and it was closer to home, I was in.”

Its Irish setting was important for Dornan.

“It was a bit of an upheaval to go to Australia,” he explains.

“I have three kids and I took them all to Australia with me, they went to school there and it was a big thing family-wise to do that.

“So the idea of doing that again so soon wasn’t hugely appealing.”

Macdonald was also keen, though more as an opportunity to visit the green expanses of the Emerald Isle.

“I really wanted to go to Ireland,” she says. “I was aiming for Ireland early on.”

“I genuinely think by proxy of it being in Ireland, it feels like a different show,” says Dornan.

Born in Holywood, Northern Ireland, Dornan tips his hat to the brothers’ Irish comedic sensibilities.

“The fact that the story now takes place predominantly in Ireland brings a different type of tone and different humour, and I have to say Jack and Harry as two English lads write Irish humour really, really, really well. They’re really tuned in.

“Jack and Harry have a very, very particular way of writing and blending genre that is a bit of a headache sometimes at the beginning of a process performance-wise of where to hang your hat, but then once you get comfortable with the rhythms of it, it’s really fun.”

The Tourist returns to BBC One on Monday, January 1.