Introduction to series 2 from Creator and Writer Paul Rutman

1 March 2016

Series Two moves the story forward three years to the summer of 1935… We rejoin our characters at boiling point…

When we last saw Ralph Whelan, he was coming to terms with a son Adam he never knew about, while keeping alive his political ambitions to rise to the top of the British administration. Now he’s seeing out the current Viceroy the Earl of Willingdon’s (Patrick Malahide) last summer in India, while vying to replace him. Ever the gambler, he invites Adam to live under his own roof as his house-boy, despite the fact he is now married to Madeleine (Olivia Grant), has a daughter by her - and she knows nothing of the connection with Adam. But all his hopes, friendships and assumptions are about to go up in smoke. Ralph’s Empire is about to come crashing down.

Aafrin Dalal was last seen at a crossroads: he was poised to rise in the administration, but at the same time - thanks to his disenchantment with Ralph - agreed to work as a spy, passing intelligence on to violent nationalists. Now, three years on, he is a model Indian civil servant, respected and accepted by his British paymasters. He is their ‘trusted babu’. But he’s also working closely with terrorists. One of them is his lover. The other is plotting to blow up Viceregal Lodge. This is a fatal summer for Aafrin Dalal. As he, his family, and the woman he loves, are put in danger, he will be driven to the edge - and forced, at last, to choose a side.

Alice Whelan - last seen embarking on a secret romance with Aafrin - is now married to an English banker Charlie Havistock (Blake Ritson), whom she claims led her on a whirlwind romance. The truth is simpler and darker: he is the same husband she ran away from three years ago. She was coerced into accepting him back, after he threatened to have their son removed by the court. Outwardly charming, Charlie is a quiet monster: conducting a campaign of psychological abuse against his wife in public and private. As Aafrin and even her brother Ralph seem unable to help her, Alice realises she has to fight for herself

As for Cynthia Coffin - she has her hands full running the Royal Simla Club and trying to keep her beloved Ralph’s political ambitions on track. But a buried secret, that strikes at the heart of her relationship with Ralph, her son in-all-but-name, erupts midway through summer - threatening to wreck all her best-laid plans.

Politically, these are wilderness times in the story of Independence. Jinnah and Nehru, future prime ministers of Pakistan and India respectively - are away in Europe. Gandhi is preoccupied with social reform. As for the Brits, parliament has finally passed into law the Government of India Act. Its reforms are expected to bind India to the Empire for generations to come. In reality, it’s a beached whale of an act, the longest piece of legislation in the history of parliament - and so full of compromise and caveats, it’s doomed to be rejected by all and sundry.

Many of us know about Mahatma Gandhi’s gospel of non-violence. But Indian nationalism was a broad church. Inspired by legendary revolutionaries like Baghat Singh, who set off a bomb in British India’s Legislative Assembly, violent rebels went on threatening the peace throughout the thirties. The Viceroy, the Earl of Willingdon, was the subject of a number of assassination plots.

Season 2 is a fictional story of a few such terrorists, bidding to jump-start the faltering cause of Independence through carnage. Their adventure cuts to the heart of violent resistance - and asks when, if ever, is it right to take up arms for a cause you believe in?

As Aafrin, Ralph and Alice are pulled into the vortex, a major character is about to die…