Interview: Sope Dirisu, Michelle Fairley & Richard Dormer on ‘Gangs of London’ Season 3
After the events of Gangs of London season 2 left a blood-soaked power vacuum in London’s criminal underworld, season 3 wastes no time in lighting the fuse. Elliot Carter (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù), once an undercover cop, is now deep in the game — working alongside the Dumanis and climbing higher into a world he was supposed to take down. But when a shipment of cocaine is spiked and hundreds of civilians across the city die, the walls start closing in.
“There’s a lot to carry,” Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù says of playing Elliot. “Especially in terms of the technical [stuff], like how the character speaks, who he is to different people, who he is to himself. So there’s almost three characters that that single character was playing.”
As the city reels from the mass poisoning, the question of who is behind the attack becomes the central mystery — unleashing chaos across the gangs of London. The Dumanis scramble to hold onto power, the Wallaces are forced back into action, and new players with old grudges step out of the shadows.
For Dìrísù, tracking Elliot’s shifting identity has always been part of the performance. “I did a lot of research. I read a lot of books, a lot of accounts of undercover police officers, and that slipping of like, ‘Oh actually, who am I now?’ Planting that doubt throughout the series, planting mistakes was really interesting.”
And while the psychological weight is heavy, the physical side has its own challenges. “The real fight training came when I started doing Gangs of London,” he says. “I’m very grateful to [stunt co-ordinators] Jude Poyer, Chris Webb and [director] Gareth [Evans] in the first season for affording me the opportunity to discover this aspect to my physicality.”
Michelle Fairley returns as Marian Wallace — still grieving, still calculating, and still very dangerous. But this season, everything changes when her estranged brother Cornelius Quinn (Richard Dormer) returns to the fold.
“He was thrown out and banished from the family because he was a loose cannon,” Dormer says. “Now he’s back, trying to take advantage of a gap [he sees] by befriending [Marian’s son] Billy [played by Brian Vernel] so that he can creep back into that power.”
With the Wallace family fractured and old rivalries reignited, Fairley says Marian is in a more volatile position than ever. “The happenings that are occurring with Marian are more momentous in their scale because of the actual event itself,” she explains. “Power is shared and it shifts. If people lose their lives, then there’s an opportunity for somebody else to maneuver into position.”
As always, the show doesn’t shy away from its signature violence — and Marian isn’t spared from the action. “They’re so intense and that’s what you want as an actor,” Fairley says of filming the more brutal scenes. “But also, you want to be given the chance to show that side to a woman who most people know as a mother. She suddenly switches over to this horrendous sort of monster and then just walks back in and makes a cup of tea.”
Fairley also tapped into her own roots to bring Marian’s inner world to life. “Because I am Irish, you bring that knowledge with you in that respect,” she says. “When Matt [Flannery] and Gareth [Evans] wrote season 1, they gave us a very inclusive backstory. I had a really good sense of who she was from what they had given me.”
Meanwhile, Dormer — who’s also a writer — brings a dual perspective to his performance. “Whenever I look at a script, I look at it with a writer’s head as well as an actor’s,” he says. “And when I’m writing, I know what actors need to be able to go through the journey of the story.”
It’s that level of detail — both behind the scenes and on screen — that’s kept Gangs of London so sharp, even as it evolves with each season.
And also probably why, when asked which project stands out most across her career — Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, or any of her theatre work — Fairley doesn’t hesitate: “Gangs of London, obviously.”
GANGS OF LONDON season 3 is now available on Sky.