An overview of The Mill, Series 2

30 June 2014

 

As with the first series of The Mill, much of the filming for Series Two takes place at the National Trust’s Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, which was owned and run by the influential Greg family. The drama continues to be inspired by documents from the extensive historical archive at Quarry Bank, delving further into the lives of mill workers and owners. Taking a worm’s-eye view, The Mill is a distinctly Channel 4 take on costume drama, exploring history from the bottom up. The show will, once again, be spearheaded by BAFTA award-winning writer, John Fay (Clocking Off, Torchwood, Coronation Street), who wrote the first series. He leads a team of writers including Alice Nutter, Ian Kershaw, Debbie Oates, Steve Fay and Tony Green.

Returning characters include feisty Liverpudlian Esther Price, played by Kerrie Hayes (Nowhere Boy, Kicks, Black Mirror), who was BAFTA-nominated for her role in Series One. Progressive young engineer Daniel Bate, played by Matthew McNulty (Jamaica Inn, The Paradise, Misfits), also returns with wife, Susannah Bate, played by Holly Lucas (Holby City, Where the Heart Is, Bronson), as well as Susannah’s sister Miriam Catterall, played by Sacha Parkinson (Coronation Street, My Mad Fat Diary, Shameless). Series Two will also introduce new characters including John Howlett and his wife Rebecca, economic migrants from the impoverished South of England in search of work in the booming North, played by Mark Frost (Doctors, Jonathan Creek, Casualty) and Laura Main (Call The Midwife, Monarch of the Glen, The Forsyte Saga). There are new tensions with the arrival of Martha Price, Esther’s sister, played by Vicky Binns (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Von Trapped), and Will Whittaker (Mark Strepan), a handsome apprentice shoemaker who catches Esther’s eye. There’s also a new master of the mill set on modernisation, William Greg (Andrew-Lee Potts), who’s the father of Susannah’s first child, and a new mill manager too, James Windell (Justin Salinger). Meanwhile newcomer Sope Dirisu joins the cast as Peter Gardener, a black apprentice who Hannah Greg (Barbara Marten) has brought back from the Greg Plantation in Dominica.

The real Greg family was one of the leading industrial families of the period, with five mills employing thousands of workers. A liberal and politically active family, they were also some of the earliest investors in The Manchester Guardian and were members of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. But they were full of contradictions: proud of their philanthropic reputation while owning a slave plantation in Dominica and holding onto the apprentice system far longer than other mill owners.

Series One of The Mill broke viewing figure records when the first episode reached a consolidated figure of 3.8 million, with the series averaging 3.2 million.

Commissioning editors: Julia Harrington (Factual) and Sophie Gardiner (Drama)

Production Company: DSP

Producer at DSP: Johnathan Young

Managing Director at DSP: Emily Dalton

 

The Mill, Series 2, will broadcast on Channel 4 from Sunday 20th July at 8pm.