After almost two years off our screens, Trigger Point is finally returning to ITV for an explosive second season. Starring Line of Duty’s Vicky McClure and produced by Line of Duty’s Jed Mercurio, the show follows McClure’s Lana, a bomb disposal expert with the Metropolitan Police, as she tries to foil terrorist threats across London.
The first season gave us explosions, a far-right extremist group called The Crusaders and dollops of tension – all the stuff, in other words, that makes for a great bit of television. And with season two about to air, let’s refresh our memories on who, exactly, is playing whom.
Vicky McClure plays Lana Washington
Lana is a former soldier turned bomb disposal expert for the Metropolitan Police. Having served in Afghanistan, she now helps the police counter terrorism threats around London – and in season one, she was front and centre in trying to stop a mysterious new terror threat before they could cause mass casualties. In season two, she's back from secondment in Estonia (training Ukrainian bomb disposal teams, naturally) but has not yet returned to active duty. We find her giving a talk to security officers in London... when there is a bomb attack in the heart of the city.
Who is Vicky McClure?
Vicky McClure is the famous DI Kate Fleming from BBC show Line of Duty. Born in Nottingham, she initially struggled to break into the industry – she had to drop out of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as she wasn’t able to pay the fees – she appeared in Shane Meadowes’ This Is England film and miniseries from 2006 until 2015 as Lorraine "Lol" Jenkins.
In 2012, she was tapped to play Fleming in Jed Mercurio’s Line of Duty, which was a smash hit. She’s not been out of work since, appearing in BBC thriller The Replacement in 2017, Channel 4 drama I Am… in 2019 and 2022’s Without Sin.
Eric Shango plays Danny
Danny started season one as a relatively new recruit for the Met Police: fresh faced and uncertain about the intense demands of the job. Now, he’s a seasoned professional. "He’s much more secure within his job and with the people he’s working alongside, so you get the opportunity to see a more rounded version of Danny and find out more about him," says Shango.
Who is Eric Shango?
Shango is relatively new to the acting scene. 2022’s Trigger Point marked his first major role. He’s talked before about being “dead broke” before he got the part, but has since gone onto appear in 2022’s thriller Suspicion too.
Mark Stanley plays DI Thom Youngblood
Thom is a senior member of the Metropolitan Police, whom Lana was seeing covertly over the events of the first season, before their explosive falling out. "Thom has moved on, he’s in a relationship with another colleague, Helen, who is a police officer played by Natalie Simpson," says Stanley. "Helen is very different to Lana in a lot of ways, so Thom’s life has changed."
Who is Mark Stanley?
Real name Mark Robert Speight, Stanley was born in Leeds and attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He’s best known for appearing in Game of Thrones (as Knight’s Watch recruit Grenn), BBC drama Dickensian as Bill Sikes and in the third series of Happy Valley as Rob Hepworth. He also recently appeared in BBC show The Reckoning, about the crimes of Jimmy Savile, as British journalist Dan Davies.
Kerry Godliman plays Sonya Reeves
Sonya works at the Bomb Data Centre – aka a department of the counter-terrorism unit at New Scotland Yard. Her job is all about analysing the chemicals and equipment used to make explosives, in order to track down where they’re being made.
Who is Kerry Godliman?
Actor and comedian Kerry Godliman hails from Perivale, West London and cut her teeth in the Noughties, appearing as a comedian on shows like Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and sketch show Rush Hour. Since then, she’s appeared in Ricky Gervais’ Channel 4 show Derek, BBC drama Our Girl (opposite Michelle Keegan); she also is a regular guest on the Channel 4 show Taskmaster.
Nabil Elouahabi as Hass
Hass is a member of the police force, a longtime friend of Lana's and Joel's (from season one). "Hass was acting up in Lana’s role while she was away, but now he has to give the reins back," says Elouahabi.
"It’s a strange situation for him and he's conflicted because he respects and likes Lana as a colleague and as a friend, but he had just found his position as the lead expo and she’s going to take it back again. So there’s always going to be a little bit of underlying tension there, which is an exciting prospect from an acting perspective."
Who is Nabil Elouahabi?
British actor Elouhabi has been on our screens for years. He made his acting debut in a 1998 episode of Casualty and went onto appear in Attachments, Only Fools and Horses, and EastEnders as Tariq Larousi (though his character was axed after proving unpopular with viewers). More recently, he's appeared in Martin Freeman series Breeders, and in the hit Jimmy McGovern series Time, alongside Sean Bean.
Natalie Simpson plays DS Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan is a new addition to the cast: a police officer who finds herself working alongside Lana. "She’s very professional, very ambitious in her job and she takes things very seriously both in and out of work," says Simpson. "She likes to get on with people, so it’s an interesting dynamic that you have between her and Lana, because Lana isn’t trying to please anyone at all, she is just doing what she thinks is right. Whereas Helen does try to please everyone and ends up getting in situations where she can’t do it all."
Natalie Simpson was born and raised in Nigeria, before going onto graduate from LAMDA. From there, she’s going onto forge a successful career on stage, appearing in productions of King Lear, Cymbeline and Hamlet. She’s also appeared in TV show Outlander, as Phaedre, Jocasta Cameron’s enslaved servant.
Julian Ovenden plays Commander John Francis
We don't know much about Commander John Francis, but odds are good that he's a figure from Lana’s past in the military. Ovenden himself is an English actor and singer; born in Sheffield, he’s the son of Reverend Canon John Ovenden – the former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II. He won a music scholarship to Eton and a choral scholarship to Oxford; from there, he went onto a career in the West End and Broadway. He’s also appeared in several TV shows – including Downton Abbey, Bridgerton (as Henry Granville) and as Robert F. Kennedy in The Crown.
Adetomiwa Edun plays Alex
Not much is known about Alex, except that he’s a new character in the series. Born in Nigeria, Edun moved to the UK at the age of 11 and attended Eton; though his father encouraged him to take up banking as a career, he chose acting and went to study at RADA. Since then, he’s become a mainstay on the stage – he became the second-ever black actor to play Romeo at the Globe in 2009; he’s appeared in Merlin, Lucifer and Death in Paradise, and has provided the voice acting for Cyberpunk 2077.
