Rose Leslie returns in Vigil series 3, and this time DI Kirsten Longacre is pushed into the Arctic. DCI Amy Silva joins her mid-series, as the case moves from a remote research station to a murder linked to a covert British special forces mission.
The new run begins on iPlayer and One on Sunday 30 August. It gives the series its clearest reset yet: a new setting, a new murder, and a partnership that now has careers and a relationship on the line.
Suranne Jones in Svalbard
Suranne Jones said she had one day to acclimatise while Rose Leslie, Jeppe and Tornike were on the boat, which viewers see in the first episode. That structure matters because Amy does not arrive fully embedded from the start; she joins Kirsten in Svalbard midway through the series, so the investigation has to grow into a two-hander rather than begin as one.
Jones also 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 this series in comparison to the previous ones, because Amy joins Kirsten in Svalbard midway through and they work on the case together." That is the practical shift for this series: less separation between the two leads, more screen time built around joint work.
Glasgow after the Arctic
Jones said, "Svalbard was amazing. 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." She also said the cast and crew were filming in remote locations there, with reindeer outside the breakfast room every morning and snow buggies in use.
The production then moved to Glasgow, where Jones said, "the problem was when we got back to Glasgow we were too hot because we still had to film with all our layers on!" That change in conditions tells you how the series was built: the Arctic provided the texture, then Scotland carried the rest of the shoot without losing the look of cold-weather work.
Arctic mission, one case
A member of a covert British special forces mission has been murdered at the Arctic research station. Amy and Kirsten now have to catch the killer and defuse a potential international confrontation while different nations compete for control of the Arctic and its resources in the changing polar climate.
That is why Vigil series 3 feels bigger than a single homicide case. The murder is the trigger, but the series is really using it to keep the franchise’s core pairing intact while shifting the pressure outward, into territory where the investigation can spill beyond one station and one suspect. How the murder connects to the covert mission is the part the series is holding back for now, and that is the hook that should carry the opening episodes.
