[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Responder.]

The Big Picture

Season 2 of ‘The Responder’ sees Martin Freeman diving deeper into Chris Carson’s struggle to balance personal demons and professional challenges.
Freeman and creator/writer Tony Schumacher prioritized only doing a second season if it surpassed the first in quality, driven by a desire for improvement.
The father-daughter dynamic between Chris and Tilly plays a crucial role in making the morally compromised character empathetic and relatable.

From creator/writer Tony Schumacher, the second season of The Responder, which is available to stream at BritBox, continues to follow Liverpool response officer Chris Carson (Martin Freeman) as he tries to better himself for his daughter Tilly (Romi Hyland-Rylands), but seems to keep getting dragged back into other people’s criminal dealings. Thinking all his problems will be solved by getting off the night beat and finding a day job, Chris realizes that might never happen and that it rests solely on his shoulders to put his daughter and her best interests first.

During this interview with Collider, Freeman, who’s also an executive producer on the series, and Schumacher talked about not wanting to do a second season unless it could be better than the first, their collaborative partnership throughout the two seasons, how a scene in Freeman’s season of Fargo led to the creation of this role, the importance of the father-daughter dynamic, how they feel about where they’ve left the character now, and whether they’d consider doing a third season. They also discussed what they’re working on now, and how the work Freeman has been doing is quite a change of pace from The Responder.

The Responder (2022) The Responder follows Chris Carson, a morally compromised urgent response officer tackling a series of night shifts in Liverpool. As he battles personal demons and professional challenges, he strives to redeem himself while maintaining his sanity and helping those in crisis​.Release Date January 24, 2022 Cast Martin Freeman , Adelayo Adedayo , Emily Fairn , Warren Brown , Romi Hyland-Rylands , MyAnna Buring , Josh Finan , Mark Womack Seasons 2 Creator(s) Tony Schumacher

Collider: Obviously you don’t want to return for another season unless you can at least rise to the same level, if not make it even better the second time around. Tony, when did you realize you had a season that was worth telling, at least to you? When did it feel like you knew you should do it a second time?

TONY SCHUMACHER: Martin and I had always thought, separate from everyone else, that we wouldn’t do it unless we could come up with better stuff. That was always the rule that we had. We just went away and worked and worked and worked until we thought we had something better. And then, we ran it by Martin, and Martin agreed. It was literally just about, “What do we want to look at and will it be better?” It was as simple as that. We just wanted it to be better.

Season 2 of ‘The Responder’ Needed To Be Even Better Than the Successful First Season
Image via BritBox

Martin, how was the second season presented to you? Would you have said something if you didn’t think it lived up to your own expectations?

MARTIN FREEMAN: I’m quite fanatical about not doing things unless you think it can be slightly better than it was before. Tony and I had talked about that and really agreed, just from a creative point of view, why do more? We did five episodes that were really good. We were really proud of them. You go out again, of course, you’re running the risk of falling below that bar or just doing it for the sake of it because you’ve been flattered into doing another one because it was successful. We started off on the first season thinking, “This is a standalone thing,” so the decision to do it again was not taken lightly. And I’m definitely someone who will say, “I’m not crazy about that.” I wasn’t in the engine room. I had a couple of sessions with them. The producers and Tony and I would have quite regular chats about where we might want to go and what we wanted to see the characters do. Everyone would chip in on that and everyone had opinions about what they like or don’t like. But ultimately, the engine room of Tony and the producers would go away and hammer this stuff out, give each other nervous breakdowns in the doing of it, and it was all in good cause. Everything is up for grabs until pretty much the last possible minute because we’re always trying to make it better.

SCHUMACHER: Absolutely. Martin is very hands-on, as a lead actor. He was very committed to it. I think he’s proud of what he did. He didn’t want to dilute that performance by just bringing it back for the sake of bringing it back. So, we did read-throughs with Martin in the room so we could get a feel for what we were doing. He gives you good, simple, straightforward notes. There’s a directness about him, which I love. As a writer, you don’t want people giving you flannel. You want good notes, and that’s what he does. I think we got a good working partnership going when it came to that.

FREEMAN: This is not me trying to be modest, but I’m not clever enough to give clever notes. Both Tony and I are quite direct. We want to figure out how to get from A to B in the most direct, simplest, most effective way possible. I think that’s part of the strength of the show. The team, in every department, is going towards how to tell these stories as directly and as effectively as possible. That starts with Tony as the motor of it, but everyone is trying to do that, as well. You could call this a political show with a small “p,” but I certainly never had conversations with Tony where we said, “Let’s talk about men’s mental health. Let’s talk about this issue or that issue.” Just by honoring storytelling and by honoring three-dimensional characters, those things come out in the wash anyway. If you’re doing that stuff well, then you are touching on issues and topics without giving them subject headings and without going, “This is an important show.” We’re just doing a show about a load of people trying and fucking up all the time but trying their best. What comes out of that, of course, is that we are touching on issues and topics in contemporary Britain, and probably contemporary society all over the place. That comes out of just us trying to tell stories effectively and simply.

Martin Freeman’s Role in ‘Fargo’ Led to the Creation of ‘The Responder’
Image via FX

It feels like charming men as surly detectives battling their own demons has become its own subgenre in British crime TV, which I’m fully happy with because I love all those shows. Tony, what was it that made you think of and see Martin Freeman in this role? Having watched the series, I get it, but I don’t know if he would have been who first came to mind if I had just read the script.

SCHUMACHER: I wrote the show purely with Martin in mind. Essentially, it was based on about three minutes of when he was in Fargo. There was one scene in Fargo, where he sends his girlfriend into a shop, not knowing whether Lorne Malvo is inside and is gonna kill her. His silent lack of acting, because it’s not acting, what he does, he inhabits, is so unshowy. It’s just so true and real and honest, great facial acting. I was writing books at that point, but I said, “If I ever write anything for TV, it’s going to star Martin Freeman.” Unbelievably, that happened, but that was always the way.

Martin, does that create more of a sense of pressure and responsibility when you have a character that is written for you, or does it provide for even more of a sense of collaboration?

FREEMAN: Certainly, me and Tony collaborate very happily. I love our working relationship a lot. We’re coming from not a million miles away from each other. Whether we agree on everything or not, we totally get it. I really get where he’s coming from, and I think he gets where I’m coming from. It didn’t really make for more pressure. We were a fair way through the process of developing the show and pitching the show when I found out that it was written with me in mind. I didn’t know that it was, at first. I got this script by an unknown writer and I thought, “Christ, this is brilliant.” All the while, I thought, “Of course, selfishly, I want to do this all day long.” But I also thought, “I don’t know if I’m the guy who this writer would want to this.” I understand what you mean when you say, “I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of Martin Freeman for this.” I completely get that because I also thought, “I wonder if this writer is secretly thinking, ‘I hope Martin passes on it and we get someone else.’” It wasn’t until a fair way through that I knew Tony had written it with me in mind, and I was really so pleased by that. It relaxes you, in a way, because you think, “Okay, I’m not having to fight that on that front, of trying to convince the writer that I’m the man for the job.”

I’m also trying to convince myself that I’m the man for the job. Part of me knows I can do it. Part of me knows I can fucking have this for dinner and really lap it up, eat it, devour it, and love it. But I’ve also got enough self-doubt where I’m like, “I don’t know,” because I’m not the obvious casting for it and I know that there are other very, very good British, not to mention Liverpool, actors of my generation who could also do this very well. So, I wasn’t really taking anything for granted. As an executive producer, I also thought, unselfishly, “I would rather just see this being made as well as it can possibly be made, whether I’m in it or not.” I was invested in it, as a show and as a script, because I thought, “This is a real piece of work. Whether I’m in it or not, I want it to be on television.” But of course, I wanted to be in it, so I was delighted when I found out, and I relaxed, I suppose, when I found out that Tony had written it only with me in mind. I thought, “Well, that’s fantastic news.”

Related Martin Freeman Walks on Thin Ice in ‘The Responder’ Season 2 Sneak Peek [Exclusive] Don’t miss the new season on BritBox!

Martin, when you’re playing a guy like this, who just feels like the job has really sucked everything out of him, is that more physically exhausting? Did it get more exhausting between Season 1 and Season 2? How does that weigh on you?

FREEMAN: I’m energized by it, to be honest, simply because I’m energized by good storytelling and things that I really, really love doing it. So, no, it doesn’t weigh on me at all. In Series 1, which was right in the middle of COVID and lockdown, we were doing an awful lot of night shoots. Ordinarily, you’d think that would really knock you out because you’re getting in at three or four in the morning, but I never had a bad day on it. I was really up for it. And it was like that on Series 2. I love playing Chris. I love the team and the crew. We had fantastic directors who energized me, as well. This might not be true of everybody, but in my experience, the darker and more serious the content of the piece, the more light you have to be the rest of the time. While you’re rehearsing, and for that time between “Action!” and “Cut!,” the vast majority of the day is not turning over. It’s serious, what he’s attending to, but there is lighting and comedy in the show. There was a lot of laughter and a lot of piss-taking. It was a real joy because I got both of those things. I’m not really a believer in making life as heavy as the material. The material is heavy, but I don’t want to be miserable for three months. That’s awful. Thank God that I’m an actor. It was really joyous and a nice bunch of people.

SCHUMACHER: We were so lucky. There was such a fantastic vibe. Everyone wanted to be there. No one was just doing it for the sake of doing a job. The city of Liverpool really embraced the production, which was brilliant. I was so proud of seeing all these people coming together on the back of something I’d written.

Because this can be a character that is hard to root for, is his daughter a really important part of the story to keep audiences rooting for him? Did it feel like it would be easier to give up on a guy like this if he wasn’t genuinely also trying to be better for his daughter?

SCHUMACHER: He’s a real guy to me. When I’m writing Chris, he’s as real as I am. For all his flaws, it doesn’t make me feel sorry for him, but it makes me empathetic towards him. He doesn’t want to be a bad guy. That’s what makes people root for him. They can see that he doesn’t want to do these things. He doesn’t want to be in these situations because of his daughter. Romi [Hyland-Rylands] is such an incredible young actress. She’s so good. That chemistry between Martin and her, and Chris and Tilly in the show, definitely helps to make people root for them, but I think people can sympathize with him a little bit, as well.

Martin, what did you most enjoy about seeing what that relationship brought out in your character?

FREEMAN: Without sounding like a commercial, that’s the best of him. She brings out the best that he can be, and makes him a calmer, softer person and a more fun person. He likes being with her. He has fun when he’s with her, except when he’s not because he’s stressed and scared. Then, of course, it comes out at Tilly, as it often does in life. The people you love most get it most in the neck, and that’s unfortunately the way it is. I don’t think there’s any doubt from the audience, or from Tilly, that he absolutely adores her. He is trying to move heaven and earth, in order to maintain a relationship with his daughter, including running the risk of going to prison for doing silly, illegal shit. There’s no question that he loves her. All the characters know that he loves her.

Would Martin Freeman and Tony Schumacher Consider Doing Season 3 of ‘The Responder’?
Image via Britbox

How do you guys feel about where you’ve left this character now? Have you had conversations about doing another season of this? Does it feel like it would be an even bigger mountain to climb when you have two seasons to live up to, if you try to do it a third time?

SCHUMACHER: It feels like we’ve left him in a good place. But I’d never say never, if we could come up with the right thing and if we could find the right way to do it. Chris is safe where he is now. I’m happy that he’s there, and I’m happy for him that he’s where he is. I don’t want to do bad things to him again.

FREEMAN: We’ll find him on a Caribbean island. Tony and me do talk about that sort of thing, and how much we enjoy doing it and how much we respect the show. The show feels like something outside of us now. It’s something we wouldn’t want to mess up, as a separate entity from ourselves, almost. But as Tony said, I think if it was absolutely right and genuinely an artistically good idea to do more, then absolutely. But I want that to be the case, all the time, to be fair. Not everything I do is as successful as The Responder, for sure, but I always try to think, “Okay, if The Beatles split up after seven years, then everything can be finite.” So, I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that if we did it again, all of us – me and Tony and everybody involved who cares about the show – would want it to maintain its specialness and for it to be appointment television, as opposed to Series 12 of The Responder.

SCHUMACHER: I agree.

Related The 10 Best Martin Freeman Movies, Ranked “I’m going on an adventure!”

Tony, do you know what you’re going to do next? Are you working on anything currently?

SCHUMACHER: Yeah, I’m working on a new thing that we can’t announce just yet. I’ve got a few things hopefully coming up over the next year or two. And then, maybe I might have a weekend off. Although Martin will probably ring me then and tell me to get work on something else, so I’ll probably never get any time off.

Martin Freeman Is Taking On Agatha Christie Next, With ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’
Images via Lionsgate

Martin, what are you currently working on?

FREEMAN: I’m currently working on a show for Netflix, which is an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials Mystery book from the 1920s. It’s an early Agatha Christie, which has been adapted by Chris Chibnall, who did Broadchurch, among other things. It’s a lot of fun. I’m really, really enjoying it. I’ve done a few jobs this year, which have been a complete change of pace from The Responder, which ended in December, and then we were editing it. I was in Responder Land in my head for a long time, and now doing things which are a complete change of pace from that, it’s all the reasons that you want to be an actor. You just want to get the chance to go and dip your toe over there, and then you go and try this, and then you have a little bite of that. I’m very, very fortunate in that regard.

Related Netflix’s New Agatha Christie Mystery Just Added ‘My Lady Jane’s Heartthrob The Netflix-helmed series, ‘The Seven Dials Mystery’ continues to add eye-catching talent to its ensemble.

The Responder is available to stream on BritBox. Check out the trailer:

Watch on BritBox