The Tourist: who stars with Jamie Dornan in cast of new BBC thriller series, release date, and series 2 news

The Tourist is BBC One’s action-packed new drama, a six-part thriller starring Jamie Dornan and set in the Australian outback.

It’s currently available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer, and arrived on HBO Max in the US on March 3 2022.

A second series was confirmed by the BBC in late March 2022.

Here’s everything you need to know about The Tourist.

What is The Tourist about?

The Tourist is about an Irish man who wakes up in Australia with amnesia. It quickly becomes clear that someone tried to kill him – and that they’re still trying to, too.

As the man (Jamie Dornan) tries to work out who he was, why he was in Australia, and why someone wants him dead, he must also try to stay a few steps ahead of the people who are trying to kill him.

The BBC have described the series as “a story of self-discovery with a ticking time-bomb underneath”, full of “shocking, surprising, funny and brutal turns”.

Who is in the cast of The Tourist?

Jamie Dornan plays the eponymous tourist, an amnesiac trying to work out why people are trying to kill him.

Dornan has previously appeared in television series such as Once Upon A Time and The Fall, as well as films Robin Hood and Belfast, but he’s best known for playing Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movies.

Australian actor Danielle Macdonald (Unbelievable) is playing Helen Chambers, a local police officer assigned to help Dornan’s character throughout.

The cast also includes Shalom Brune-Franklin (Line of Duty), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Missing), and Alex Dimitriades (The Cry).

Hugo Weaving was initially attached to the project, but had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by Damon Herriman (Mindhunter).

Where can I watch The Tourist?

The Tourist will begin on BBC One at 9pm on New Year’s Day, 1 Jan 2022. The series is six episodes long and will continue weekly from then.

In the US, it’ll be available on HBO Max in 2022.

Where can I see the trailer for The Tourist?

You can watch the trailer for The Tourist below. In it, you can see Jamie Dornan’s character attacked while driving across the Australian outback, and then later speculating about who might want him dead and why.

Where was The Tourist filmed?

The Tourist is set in the Australian outback. Most of the filming for the series took place in South Australia, specifically Port Augusta, Quorn, and Peterborough.

What did you say in your review?

In our review of The Tourist, we praised its “appreciably off-kilter” tone, and the “wry comic sensibility [that makes it] much more recognisable as a black comedy than any kind of action thriller”.

In particular we singled out Danielle Macdonald as “a delight to watch, really, a properly fantastic screen presence”.

You can read our full review here.

Will there be a second series of The Tourist?

Yes! A second series of The Tourist was confirmed by the BBC’s Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore in an interview with the Radio Times in March 2022. We don’t yet know when the next series will film, or when it’ll make it to air either.

Moore also confirmed further series of Vigil, Time, and The Responder.

Why should I watch The Tourist?

You should watch The Tourist if you’re a fan of dramas like Liar or The Missing – this is the latest effort from Jack and Harry Williams, screenwriting brothers who were responsible for those earlier hits.

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