Innocent series 2: trailer, cast, and interview with Katherine Kelly

Following the critical acclaim of the first series, a new 'Innocent' story will be airing in 2021. Katherine Kelly stars in the lead role of Sally Wright who is fighting, against all odds, to prove her innocence.

The drama tells the story of Sally, a former secondary school teacher, who has spent five years in jail for a crime she didn’t commit – the murder of one of her pupils with whom, local gossip wrongly has it, she also had an affair.

Innocent season 2 started on Monday 17th May at 9pm on ITV and runs every night until May 20. If you missed the first episode you can catch up on the ITV Hub.

Innocent season 2 plot

Innocent II focuses upon the scandal that rocked the small Cumbrian town of Keswick in 2015 involving school teacher, Sally Wright, who was alleged to be having an affair with her 16-year-old pupil, Matty Taylor.

When Matty is found dead, brutally stabbed with a broken cider bottle, suspicion falls upon Sally, who had admitted to taking special interest in the boy. In spite of having no criminal record, no history of violence and vehemently protesting her innocence and the fact she couldn’t be placed at the remote beauty spot on the day Matty was found murdered, Sally was convicted by a majority verdict and sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in jail.

The new four-part series opens with Sally in the dock of Carlisle Crown Court, steely and determined to prove her innocence and that she’s been the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Innocent season 2 trailer

Innocent season 2 cast

Katherine will be joined by Jamie Bamber playing Sally’s husband Sam, as well as Priyanga Burford, Shaun Dooley, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Lucy Black, Michael Yare, Andrew Tiernan, Nadia Albina, Poppy Miller, Janine Wood, Laura Rollins and Michael Stevenson.

What happened in Innocent season 1?

The first series of Innocent focused on David Collins (played by Lee Ingleby) who after seven years in jail, is finally acquitted of the murder of his wife and vows to bring the real killer to justice.

Series two of Innocent is a completely different and separate story.

Where is innocent filmed?

Innocent series 2 is set and filmed in the Lake District, however the interior shots were filmed in Ireland.

Katherine (who plays main character Sally) had never really been to the Lake District before shooting commenced last September.

“Being from Barnsley, we always holidayed on the East Coast – although when I was about 14, I spent a week with a friend’s family in a caravan near Windermere,” she laughs. “The Lakes are absolutely stunning – the landscape feels almost prehistoric. You think how old it is, how it hasn’t changed, how brief our time on this planet is and how we should make the most of life. It was very quiet because of the restrictions in place at the time and we were the only people there.

“In one scene, shortly after Sally is released from jail, I had to swim in Derwentwater which was very cold but made me, as Sally, feel very alive. It’s a kind of renewal for her. The interiors were filmed in Ireland but that worked because the terrain is similar. The mountains and hillsides you see through the windows of our interior locations are in Ireland but they look like the Lakes.”

Filming in Ireland meant abiding by strict quarantine laws, but Katherine says she didn’t find the experience too onerous.

“Listen, I was in a five-star hotel so don’t feel too sorry for me! We’d return from a socially distanced day on set, go straight to our rooms, order room service and then bed!

“Usually there’s quite a bit of socialising when you’re on location but obviously that didn’t happen. My dad is Irish and had initially planned to visit me but that was impossible.

“One day, as I went for my daily walk, I noticed a plaque in Dun Laoghaire harbour dedicated to Irish people who’d left Ireland for Britain. I sent dad a picture, saying ‘Wish You Were Here’. He messaged me back to say that he and his own mum and dad had left from the very same harbour when he was a boy when they moved to the UK. I hadn’t known that before!”

Katherine Kelly as Sally

You may recognise Katherine from her role as wife of Captain Sutherland (Derek Riddell) in racy costume drama Gentleman Jack - a new series of which is scheduled to be released later this year.

She is also known for playing Lady Mae Rennard in period TV drama Mr Selfridge.

This isn't the actress' first dabble into the crime genre though, she's also known for dramas such as Criminal: UK, Happy Valley and Cheat.

“Innocent opens with Sally finally being cleared of murder, leaving jail and being free to return to her home in the Lake District,” Katherine reveals. “Except the life she had has all but disappeared. She no longer has a job and the husband she thought was her soulmate is living with another woman. Plus, although she’s been proved innocent, the community she lives in still regard her with suspicion.

“Time froze for Sally when she was wrongly arrested but now that she’s free – having ‘lost’ five years – she is determined to make every minute count and get her life back.”

This is a sentiment Katherine shares.

“Time is so precious,” she says. “Making the most of where you are now. I’m not one to dwell in the past; I prefer to make the most of what’s happening in the present. Live in the moment, if you like. I’m not backwards looking at all – maybe because I have a rubbish memory!

“Seriously, though, while I definitely enjoy whatever I happen to be doing at any particular time, I prefer not to hark back to the past and think, ‘Oh, I wish that was me now’. I’m always ready to move on. My character Sally is like that. It would be understandable if she just kept thinking, ‘If only I could go back to the way it was before’ But she doesn’t. She knows she has to deal with things as they are now.”

Sally’s new-found sense of freedom is particularly apt for the times we find ourselves living in now as we head out of lockdown restrictions.

“Hopefully lockdown hasn’t felt like prison for most people but it definitely has for some,” says Katherine. “Sally has been given her freedom back as we are gradually being given ours. I hope that this, in a way, will help the audience relate to Innocent more than ever. I certainly felt a sense of liberation at being able to go back to work. Also, a real sense of gratitude that we were able to film at all.”

Innocent is on ITV Hub and BritBox UK.

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