Vigil season 3 starts on Sunday 30 August, with Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie back as Amy Silva and Kirsten Longacre. The new run moves their case to an Arctic research station, where a murder and a wider confrontation over resources put both women under pressure from the first episode.
Suranne Jones in Svalbard
Suranne Jones said Amy Silva is “feisty, a maverick, straight talking, has a really good heart and a strong belief for the need for the world to be good”. She also said she had “one day” to acclimatise in Svalbard while Rose Leslie, Jeppe and Tornike were on the boat seen in the first episode.
That detail fits the way Vigil has always worked. Each series drops Amy into a new world with new rules, and this one sends her into the Arctic before the case opens up again in Scotland and Glasgow. Jones said the production later returned to Scotland to continue filming.
A murder at the station
A member of a covert British special forces mission has been murdered at a remote Arctic research station. Amy and Kirsten have to catch the killer while also defusing a potential international confrontation, as different nations compete for control of the Arctic and its resources in a changing polar climate.
The setup is sharper than a standard whodunit. The murder is only the first problem; the political fight over Arctic resources turns the investigation into a race to keep the case from spilling into something bigger, while Amy Silva and DI Kirsten Longacre are also trying to protect careers that are on the line.
Amy and Kirsten together
Jones said the pair are “kept in the dark with what they are being told” and that it is their job to find the gaps and piece it together. That gives the series its strongest friction: they are asked to solve the case while being denied the full picture.
Jones also said, “We got to spend a lot more time together,” referring to working with Rose Leslie in series 3. Amy joins Kirsten in Svalbard midway through the run, so the partnership becomes the engine of the story rather than a side thread.
From Sunday 30 August
From Sunday 30 August, the series will be available on iPlayer and One. For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple: the new case begins immediately, but the bigger payoff will come from how Amy and Kirsten handle a murder inquiry that is tied to Arctic power politics and tested by the gaps in what they are told.
Who killed the member of the covert British special forces mission is the question the series withholds, and that missing name is what gives Vigil series 3 its edge.
