After a brief encounter with Tom Burke, the Burketeers and I spent a lot of our time sat outside the café drinking coffee and talking to the production medic, who, not having much to do, was happy to speak with us. He had a lot of interesting things to tell us about the filming, actors and crew. He had met a lot of the cast members, including Leo Bill, who’s playing John Bristow, whom he said was a really nice guy. He’d also met Elarica Johnson, who’s playing Lula Landry, and Martin Shaw, who’s playing Tony Landry. The lucky medic had also met J.K. Rowling on set and managed to get an autograph and selfie with her.

The medic also revealed to us that they had finished filming episode one and that it had taken them weeks and weeks just for that one 60-minute episode.

There were a few other interesting things the medic told us in between the times he had to run into the church to pass an antibacterial wipe to crew or to see to the vicar, who had fallen over at one point. He told us that Tom Burke has a body double who is a real amputee for close-up shots of Strike’s amputated leg. Apparently the body double looks nothing like Tom and has a lengthy beard.

I could go on and on about the many stories the medic had told us but I’ll get to the more interesting part: the return of Tom Burke. He was kind enough to seek us out and approach us at the café. Here I managed to get my photo taken with him and also get my copy of Career of Evil signed in a purple pen that one of the Burketeers lent him.

Again, Tom had to dash, leaving us with the medic again, which meant more interesting conversations and stories. Finally, around one o’clock, it was lunch time, which meant cast and crew were leaving the church to go and eat. Extras as wedding guests were leaving for the town hall and Tom waved goodbye as he passed us to get in his car. But I was still waiting for Holliday Grainger….

To be continued…