Vigil aired its explosive finale on Monday night as series three came to an end
22:52, 14 Sep 2026Updated 22:57, 14 Sep 2026
Vigil aired its explosive finale on Monday night as series three came to an end (Image: BBC / World Productions / Mark Mainz)
Vigil viewers were all quick to make the same demand on Monday as series three came to an end.
The hit BBC detective drama sees Suranne Jones as DCI Amy Silva and Rose Leslie as DI Kirsten Longacre. Series three has seen the murder of a British citizen in the Arctic, leading to DCI Amy Silva and DI Kirsten Longacre investigating the case.
It wasn’t long until Amy looked into a possible conspiracy on Scottish soil while Kirsten came up against uncooperative Russian inhabitants, who claimed foul play and obstructed her at every turn. As expected with Vigil, soon many twists came about, including the discovery of a missing person…
After five episodes full of suspense, Monday night saw the series finale as Amy and Kirsten returned to Scotland, only for danger to follow them there.
Meanwhile, Amy found herself on the wrong side of the law, and Kirsten put herself in danger to keep Amy safe and to get to the truth while under immense political pressure and personal jeopardy. The duo were faced with the hardest choice of their careers yet…
After Sir Ian Downing was arrested and politician Gordon Laity, Shen Jia was finally safe and able to share her research with the world. However, it was heartbreaking news for Amy as she faced severe action for refusing to hand Shen Jia over to the authorities.
Speaking to her boss, Amy asked: “Are you going to arrest me now?” to which he responded: “No, I don’t think there’ll be an appetite to bring charges… provided…”
With Amy answering: “Provided I resign?” to which her boss emotionally confirmed her question, saying he doesn’t like the idea but he doesn’t want to see her in prison either.
Amy then declared: “It’s been a privilege to work with you, sir” as she shook his hand. Meanwhile, emotional partner Kirsten said: “A wise colleague of mine once told me to never make this job personal” to which Amy insisted she has no regrets before walking off hand-in-hand with Kirsten.
Following the finale, viewers were quick to take to Twitter, now X, to share their thoughts, demanding a series four. One person said: “brilliant series enjoyed every episode more please #Vigil.”
A different account wrote: “End of the series. A fantastic series! #Vigil” while another fan put: “#vigil What a brilliant series.”
Elsewhere, another show watcher commented: “Vigil with the wildly talented Suranne Jones is a terrific tension filled mystery. The gripping drama, Line of Duty meets 24 with a hint of Chain Reaction, is f***in awesome. Support includes Rose Leslie as Detective Inspector Kirsten Longacre. Season 4? #Vigil.”
Will there be a Vigil season 4?
Only recently, creator Tom Edge teased whether viewers could see the duo return for a fourth series. Speaking exclusively to Radio Times, the writer said: “Regrettably, the world remains complicated and finds new ways to evolve towards instability, danger and the rest. So I don’t think we would ever find ourselves short of stories.”
He added: “I think certainly this time around, we put the show in a place where we feel that this arc across three seasons has been settled.
“I think we will see how it goes. But one of the pleasures of the show is it doesn’t feel like it is a show that has to return on an annual ticking clock basis. So I think we can leave it open, but certainly for this season, it felt like it was the culmination of a bunch of questions that we’ve asked across three seasons. I was happy to take it to that point.”
Vigil continues to air every Sunday and Monday night on BBC One as DI Kirsten Longacre (played by Rose Leslie) heads up the latest murder investigation.
But in a complete 180 degrees move to series two which was mostly set in the Middle East, season three takes place in Svalbard, Norway, which is located in the Arctic Circle.
And with Svalbard having an average annual temperature between minus 11 and minus 16 degrees, it wasn’t the easiest of conditions to work in.
Nevertheless, Leslie did pick up a few helpful tips while shooting in Iceland’s freezing temperatures for Game of Thrones.
“Filming back then, I was given a brilliant hack that I also used for Svalbard as well.
“Essentially, if you get a heat pack and you place them on both your kidneys, you are then heating up your blood because your blood is going through your kidneys and then whizzing everywhere else in your system.
“So if you’re heating up the blood going through your kidneys, you’re actually going to warm yourself up.
So I was like ‘Guys, you’ve got to listen to me on this!’ And it works!
“That really helped me on every single day we were filming outside on the mountain tops.”
Vigil season three returns for its third episode tonight, Sunday, September 6, where Kirsten will finally be reunited with DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones).
It’s been teased that Amy travels to Svalbard to “clear Kirsten’s name” as she faces the “wrath of the Russians”.
The official synopsis continues: “Together, they dig into the complex motivations within the hub whilst something more sinister bubbles beneath its surface.
“The truth of Hodge’s murder may be closer to home than they thought, but the situation threatens to combust before they can get to the truth.”
Vigil is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie returned for the third Vigil adventure that brings about death and drama from a remote Arctic research station
19:08, 28 Aug 2026Updated 21:28, 30 Aug 2026
Suranne Jones will be seen in a new series of Vigil(Image: BBC)
The third series of all action BBC drama Vigil has arrived and co-leads Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie are understandably proud of what they have achieved.
The adventures and investigations of DCI Amy Silva (Suranne) and DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose) which began on a submarine in 2021 attracted over 13 million viewers and despite TV audiences splitting across streaming platforms and huge choice, more than nine million viewers saw series two in December 2023 on BBC1.
Now they are back again for a new case that takes them to a remote Arctic research station, where a member of a covert British special forces mission has been murdered.
“This is kick-ass,” Suranne said of the project. “I’m always saying this is why I wanted to take this job on. This is a big, ballsy, prime time BBC show that’s like fronted by not just one, two women. And not just one, two women in a same-sex relationship. I mean, it’s great. It’s big. It’s brilliant. And then the drama that comes with it. I am proud that people still love it.
“We’re proudly representing two women that are now together, they’re married, they have two children. Rose and I have always taken the personal scenes and made sure that there is some weight to them so that we can really play, even if it’s one or two scenes, we try and make those count because it’s about our connection and always has been.
“I think fans can relate to Amy and Kirsten because they hope for the best in every situation and they try to see the good in everything. They keep fighting, which is hard these days, but they feel quite hopeful as a duo to change the world. It is the systems around them that let them down.”
Turning to her character and filming in Svalbard, she added: “We’ve seen Amy underwater, we’ve seen her fighting drones, and now series three is set in the Arctic.
“We had the opportunity to go to Svalbard, which was such an experience. It was so beautiful and we filmed those scenes at the beginning of the shoot, which allowed us to get a real feel of the world that we were inhabiting.
“Rose and I felt like we were just on top of the world because we went to places that tourists don’t normally visit since we were filming in such remote locations. There were reindeer outside the breakfast room every morning, we got to drive the snow buggies, and we really had to layer up – the problem was when we got back to Glasgow we were too hot because we still had to film with all our layers on!”
The two actors clearly enjoy working together and on screen their characters now have two children, something Rose has replicated in real life.
A mother herself, 48-year-old Suranne is now a TV veteran with hits including Doctor Foster, Gentleman Jack and Scott & Bailey since moving on from Coronation Street in 2004.
On her co-star Suranne said: “Rose has been through two pregnancies in the seasons, so you know that we bonded over because they’re big life experiences. I shared the hormones! I’m on the other end of the perimenopause. But yeah, I think it’s great.
“It’s been so lovely to develop and you’ll see when we actually get screen time together. It’s an interesting relationship.”
For 39-year-old Rose, a former star of Game Of Thrones, the job of working on dramas has changed and is now combined with bringing up a young family. She married her Game Of Thrones co-star Kit Harrington in 2018 and they have a son born in 2021 and a daughter born in 2023.
Rose continued: “I feel incredibly grateful that I had jobs to go back to post giving birth. That was incredible, and that was a kind of mental safety net to be like, oh my gosh, okay, there can still be money coming in despite the fact that I’m now growing a family. That was amazing.
“I think what it shows about working mums is that we’re f***ing lionesses. You’re juggling it all. Like you’re grappling with who you were prior to that. You’re also wanting to raise a little human who feels that they are worthy and loved, without you always going off to work. But you’re coming home. You’re trying to instil a sense of peace and calm within them, But yeah spinning many plates.”
Despite it being very cold in between takes, the two leads enjoyed the time chatting and catching up after several years between the series. Suranne said: “Rose is always my standout of filming Vigil because it’s always gorgeous to see her and work with her. We didn’t stop talking the whole time. We got to spend a lot more time together in this series in comparison to the previous ones, because Amy joins Kirsten in Svalbard midway through and they work on the case together.
“What’s also lovely is having a new cast for every series of Vigil because we’re in a different world every series, so the entire cast changes except for a few of us. The new characters for this series are brilliant and such fun. Eric Godon (plays Mayor Korotayev) used to bring his own coffee onto set and he’s from Belgium, so he’d sometimes bring Belgian chocolates in.
“We’re just like a band of brothers and we’re all in it together so we’re a real team – that involves the crew too. I loved going into make-up first thing in the morning, it’s my favourite place as they’re so great and they really get you going at the start of the day.”
Grinning Rose added: “I think it comes down for me certainly to the fact that Suranne is utterly divine. Being opposite her and also working alongside of her, and the kind of the energy that she brings and the joy that she brings.
“It’s interesting, particularly with series three the fact that we get to share more screen time has been awesome, so I feel really for series three that our relationship has developed more than in one and two.”
The pair don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but it is fair to say the series continues where the previous two left off with explosions, death and devious characters involved.
Amy and Kristen – fresh back from maternity leave – will need to catch the killer and defuse a potential international confrontation, as different nations compete for control of the Arctic and its resources in the changing polar climate. It is a challenging and dangerous situation with both their careers and relationship seemingly on the line.
Suranne concluded: “Each series also brings new challenges with Amy not knowing her surroundings – she’s constantly put into these new worlds, with new rules and new characters and so she’s always trying to figure out where her authority is in that. I also think Amy and Kirsten are kept in the dark with what they’re being told and it’s their job to find the gaps and piece it together.
“I think fans can relate to Amy and Kirsten because they hope for the best in every situation and they try to see the good in everything. They keep fighting, which is hard these days, but they feel quite hopeful as a duo to change the world.”
Vigil Series 3 returned on August 30 on BBC1 with episodes one and two on BBC iPlayer.
BBC Vigil is back and a lot has happened since fans last saw DCI Amy Silva and DI Kirsten Longacre.
Hayley Anderson Screen Time TV Reporter
18:49, 30 Aug 2026
Vigil season three BBC trailer
BBC Vigil fans have been quick to point out an indication of Amy and Kirsten’s relationship status.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from BBC Vigil season three.
As well as the intense international murder investigations, Vigil fans have loved watching the blossoming romance between DCI Amy Silva (played by Suranne Jones) and DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie).
The couple have come a long way since they met in series one of the BBC crime thriller, overcoming both personal and professional struggles.
But it didn’t take long before viewers got the update they were waiting for in the debut episode of BBC’s Vigil, which is now ready to stream on BBC iPlayer.
When Amy and Kirsten first appear onscreen, they are in their bedroom with their young son Fergal, Kirsten folding clothes and Amy lying in bed with him.
They lovingly muck about and in a later scene after Kirsten is told she is flying out to Svalbard, she hugs her adopted daughter Poppy.
Before they part ways, Amy and Kirsten share a long embrace and reciprocate their “I love you”.
Fans flocked to X to share their love for this insight into the couple’s home life, with one person writing: “Seeing our #Silvacre ladies being a family with Poppy & Ferg is super lush.”
Another said: “This mutual I love you and hug were perfect”, as fellow fans commented they are “super cute” and have an “amazing bond”.
But these scenes are particularly eye-opening as eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that Amy and Kirsten are wearing rings, indicating that they got married during the three-year hiatus.
A viewer jokingly shared: “Me everytime their rings came on screen trying to get a closer look.”
Quoting Amy who tells the chief of Svalbard’s police to “look after my officer”, a fan said: “One Amy Silva please. That’s the WIFE.”
As someone else commented: “The worry, Poppy, the rings, the little one, the foundations for future arguments…Silvacre is back.”
But it’s not all good news for the happy family as they are now separated as Kirsten ventures to Svalbard to investigate the murder of a British soldier.
So how will Kirsten fare up on the frontline following her maternity leave and when will Amy join her in Norway?
Vigil is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Vigil is back on the BBC after a three-year hiatus with another complex case to crack.
Hayley Anderson Screen Time TV Reporter
17:56, 28 Aug 2026Updated 17:56, 29 Aug 2026
Vigil season three BBC trailer
BBC’s Vigil season three airs tonight but it’s going to look very different from the first two series.
Since BBC fans last saw DCI Amy Silva (played by Suranne Jones) and DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie), they have built a life together, welcoming their young son but it doesn’t take long before a new case lands on their laps.
The second series saw Amy travel to the Middle East following a drone attack but this time around, it’s Kirsten who is investigating a case in far colder temperatures.
After a British officer on an undercover special forces mission is fatally shot abroad, it’s up to Kirsten, as well as Amy back home, to find out what really happened.
As the countdown begins until its debut, here’s all there is to know about the filming locations for Vigil season three.
BBC Vigil season 3 filming locations
BBC Vigil season three is primarily set in Svalbard in the Arctic Circle which is where the series was also filmed.
Svalbard is part of Norway and a remote Arctic archipelago situated between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
Its largest island Spitsbergen is the home of its largest settlement Longyearbyen which has a population of around 2,600.
Describing the experience to the BBC, actress Suranne Jones shared: “Rose [Leslie] and I felt like we were just on top of the world because we went to places that tourists don’t normally visit since we were filming in such remote locations.
“There were reindeer outside the breakfast room every morning, we got to drive the snow buggies, and we really had to layer up.”
While most of the action takes place in Svalbard, this wasn’t BBC Vigil season three’s only filming location.
When Amy and Kirsten aren’t abroad investigating murder cases, they are at home in Scotland where Vigil is also shot.
The cast and crew were also seen filming extensively in and around Glasgow in areas including the West End and West Princes Street.
Vigil season three premieres on Sunday, August 30, at 9pm, on BBC One.
