Mark Gatiss on Bookish season 2, plans for season 3, and why Doctor Who should rest for a good while

Bookish is back for a second season, with Mark Gatiss’s post-war murder mystery expanding its world while delving deeper into the complicated lives of Gabriel Book and those closest to him.

Gatiss once again stars as Book, the London bookseller whose talent for solving crimes sees him drawn into a fresh collection of mysteries, alongside wife Trottie (Polly Walker) and young protégé Jack (Connor Finch).

Season two also welcomes a host of new faces, including Gatiss’s former Sherlock co-star Rupert Graves as Colonel Winters, whose arrival has unexpected consequences for Trottie.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Gatiss revealed that he’d been planning ahead for season two before the first had even aired – and that his thoughts have already turned to where Bookish could go next.

He also reflected on the future of Doctor Who, arguing that the long-running sci-fi series could benefit from disappearing for a few years before returning for a new generation.

You knew quite early that there was going to be a second season of Bookish. Did that change the way you approached the story?

I sort of had to push to know in order to get well advanced on the scripts, so we knew quite early. We didn’t tell anyone for a long time.

It was amazing and extremely rare, because it gives you the chance to get ahead of the game. You’re not waiting 18 months or something to remind everybody what it’s about.

I’ve had a sort of arc in mind, certainly for the first two series, from the beginning, and there are certain things seeded in series one in order to make that pay off, trying not to have to retro-engineer too much.

Sometimes it’s just like, “Well, if we put this in now, it might not come to anything, but it might”. So that’s quite useful.

Obviously, it boosts confidence and gives you the opportunity to think ahead and plan new kinds of stories.

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You’ve described season two as more ambitious. What did you want to do differently this time?

This season is definitely more ambitious.

There was a conscious effort to have more in Archangel Lane and the bookshop in order to establish the precinct of people and, as it were, the format […] but then expansively we go to Germany for the last one.

Now that viewers know the characters, were you tempted to bring their personal stories more to the foreground?

It’s essential that it’s a murder mystery, but inevitably they start to come into play.

I’d planned for a long time that, in a sense, because the final story is about what happened to Felix, and therefore the resolution of who Jack’s father was. It’s sort of about that – but it’s not about that completely, if you know what I mean.

That’s the reason for it. What happens when we get to Germany is its own thing.

I think you can play with that and think, “Well, this is now the central hub of the idea”. It’s part of the ongoing story, but everything around it is still the trappings of a murder mystery.

One of the big additions this season is Rupert Graves as Colonel Winters. Did you write the role with him in mind?

I remember lying in bed with Polly on series one, talking about it while I was planning for series two, and I went, “Oh, I know exactly who it should be”.

I did a sort of shortlist of potentials – one of them she said, “Absolutely not!” You always do due diligence with other actors!

But it was delightful. I live very near Rupert and we often see each other walking our dogs, and it was lovely having him as part of the show.

He’s got this silver fox look that he has now. He’s rocking that moustache!

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What can you say about Winters and his relationship with Trottie?

He plays a character called Colonel Winters, whom Trottie meets at a séance, and they have an immediate spark.

Under the terms of Book and Trottie’s arrangement, of course she’s free to do what she likes, but she gets a little out of her depth – or they both get a little out of their depth, shall we say?

Their marriage is very amicable in season one. Is season two about putting that arrangement under more pressure?

What I desperately didn’t want to do – and I remember talking about this a lot right at the beginning – is make it somehow look like Trottie is pining, that she secretly actually loves Book the way she would love her straight husband.

It’s not that. They’ve had very happy, independent, fulfilled lives. But inevitably these things come under strain, and that’s really what that’s about. She sort of questions whether what she has is what she really needs.

The final story takes Book and Jack to Germany at Christmas. Is that the closest we’re going to get to a Bookish Christmas special?

Wait and see! [Shortly after our interview, a Bookish Christmas special for 2026 was announced.]

Although the funny thing is, “The Unquiet Dead” was really the first Doctor Who Christmas special. If any of us had known the whole show was going to be as successful as it was, we’d probably have waited to do Charles Dickens! But that was on in April.

I love Christmas. It just seemed correct, and also the idea of [two-part finale] “Killer Nacht” is based around German Christmas folklore, so it’s kind of apposite, really.

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You went into Bookish with an arc for the first two seasons. When did you start thinking about what happens beyond that?

All the time.

I was writing during the shooting of series 2, just to get ahead of the game. So I certainly was carrying on.

I have found that being in the zone of the whole thing helps me think about it more. It facilitates the writing more than if I’m doing something else and totally divorced from it. It’s like, “We’re on this train now”. That’s been very helpful.

Is writing a third season different because, for the first time, you’ve actually seen what audiences responded to?

No. It’s always the same thing. Same with Sherlock, same with The League of Gentlemen or anything – it’s your show, and you’ve got to do what you want to do.

The show was such an unexpected word-of-mouth success. Obviously we were all hopeful, but it was amazing.

It’s interesting what people really respond to, but you’re absolutely doomed if you start thinking, “Oh, people like that – we must have more of that”.

Sometimes it’s quite nice because they latch on to a certain character and you think, “Oh, that’s quite nice. They’ve enjoyed that”. But the danger is it starts to warp the show. A breakout character sort of becomes too much of the focus of the show. I wouldn’t like that to happen.

What really heartens me is how much people responded to the lavender marriage, and the darkness of the show, despite it being overall a very kind of fun show.

I like that. It’s satisfying to feel that people have got that without having to be bashed over the head.

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Did the success of season one allow you to think bigger for season two?

It’s difficult to say. We’re on an amazing but small channel, and there’s only a certain amount of money to go around, particularly for a period show.

The production design and everyone involved – and Carolina [Giammetta]’s direction – it’s a magical thing to do it on the money we’ve got.

Everybody wants to be more ambitious with a second series, but you’ve got to cut your coat according to your cloth. I’m always mindful, with my producer’s hat on, that I’m not going to suddenly deliver them something which is unshootable.

But equally, it’s like, “Well, we could try. We can push this element a bit”.

It’s always a balance, and I think it’s a good thing. It makes you use your wits. It’s always nice to have a bit more money – and time, particularly.

Something like the railway station in series one was the biggest day with extras, and it really looks fabulous. But you sort of earn that because of the importance of that flashback.

Then the rest of the time you think, “OK, if we’ve got that Munich railway station, we’re going to have to make sure this section is two people talking across the desk in a police station”.

You’ve also spoken about Doctor Who being at another turning point. Do you think it needs some time away before it comes back?

Personally, I think it should rest for a good while. Nobody knows anything… someone could come in, totally reinvent it, and no one minds that it’s been off the air for three or four years.

But I personally just feel like this iteration has kind of run its course, and you want people to miss it – and an entirely new generation to go, “This is my show”, and for their parents by then to say, “Oh, in my day, my Doctor was… Who was your Doctor?” And then their grandparents vaguely remember Tom Baker. Then the wheel turns again.

It’s uncanny. This is the bit that fascinates me. As Mark Twain said: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.” And the rhyming is off the chart.

Two years after a major anniversary, it’s off. The BBC said they were ‘committed to taking Doctor Who through the ’90s’, remember? Lots of bids from Verity Lambert, Gerry Davis, and then nothing happens.

Who knows? But it’s weird, isn’t it? It’s weird.

Bookish season 2 airs on U&Alibi and is available on U.

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