Annika Season 2: Everything We Know Now
Nicola Walker fans rejoice—the actress is returning to MASTERPIECE on PBS in Annika Season 2. Walker reprises her critically-acclaimed role as DI Annika Strandhed, single mom and head of Glasgow’s Marine Homicide Unit, who references history and literature while solving grisly murders from Scotland’s waterways. Learn everything we know to date about this offbeat police procedural, including its returning characters, new cast, filming locations, theme song, and more.
- 1.
Where & When Can I Watch Season 2?
The premiere of Annika Season 2 is Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 10/9c.
Meanwhile, you can stream full episodes of Annika Season 1 online and on the PBS App when you watch with PBS Passport. You can also stream Annika Season 1 on the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel (available to Amazon Prime members for an additional monthly cost) or purchase the season and/or individual episodes. Annika may also be seen via Verizon and Vudu. The series is not available on Netflix.
- 2.
What Can We Expect in Annika Season 2?
Nicola Walker herself warns fans to anticipate a bumpy road for the lead character. “We are all looking forward to combating crime on sea and land with the MHU [Marine Homicide Unit] for a second series,” she says. But “Annika will need to confront some secrets that are closer to home. It will be an uncomfortable ride.”
The new season is written by Nick Walker (no relation), who penned Season 1. Expect Annika’s MHU team to continue to be unconventional, her daughter Morgan to remain complicated, and her future with Morgan’s therapist to be up in the air. Best of all, audiences can count on still being Annika’s confidante, as she occasionally breaks the fourth wall to discuss the crime at hand, literary references, or her parenting woes. Viewers might look for Annika to reference Walter Scott, George Orwell, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s works as she delves into Season 2’s cases.
- 3.
Who’s in the Season 2 Cast?
New cast members include Varada Sethu (left) as DC Harper Weston and Sven Henriksen (right) as Magnus Strandhed Nicola Walker is reunited with Jamie Sives (Guilt) as DS Michael McAndrews, Katie Leung (Roadkill, Harry Potter, The Nest) as DC Blair Ferguson, and Ukweli Roach (Grantchester) as DS Tyrone Clarke. Silvie Furneaux (Red Rose) is also back as Annika’s temperamental teenage daughter Morgan, and Paul McGann (Luther, Doctor Who) reprises his role as Morgan’s former therapist and Annika’s love interest.
Season 2 also welcomes new faces including Sven Henriksen (Welcome to Uttmark, Valkyrien) as Annika’s father Magnus, and Varada Sethu (Andor, Strike Back) as Marine Homicide Unit newcomer DC Harper Weston.
- 4.
Where is Annika Season 2 Set?
The show’s setting remains in Glasgow and, while there aren’t many specifics available yet regarding filming locations, Season 2 will have DI Strandhed and her associates investigating crimes in places stretching from historic Edinburgh to the far-off Hebridean island of Jura.
- 5.
What is Annika Based On?
Annika is not based on a true story nor a book. It’s actually derived from a hugely popular British radio drama that ran for seven years entitled Annika Stranded (pun intended). Nicola Walker also voiced the lead in the radio program’s fifteen-minute installments, which can still be streamed online from BBC Radio 4. The radio drama “was very idiosyncratic,” says Walker. Annika “was living in her head with a dozen different characters. You only ever heard her speaking.”
- 6.
Who Performs Annika’s TV Theme Song?
As the waves and waters bubble in television’s title sequence for Annika, we hear a haunting song—it’s a piece written and performed by the American artist Anton Newcombe and Scottish singer/songwriter Dot Allison. The theme song, entitled “Bringing Murder to the Land” is the pair’s first collaboration and the tune can be streamed on Spotify and other digital platforms.
