A guest on "The One Show" experienced a moment of live television panic after fearing he had inadvertently revealed spoilers for the upcoming ITV drama "The Tower".
The Friday evening (30 August) episode saw presenters Alex Scott and Roman Kemp chat with a panel including Kevin McCloud from "Grand Designs", reality star Spencer Matthews, and "The Tower" stars Gemma Whelan and Jimmy Akingbola.
During a discussion about the ITV series, which follows a police unit investigating crimes in a London suburb, Alex Scott asked Jimmy Akingbola about the cases the pair would be tackling. "Basically, there's a thread of like, there's a missing phone," Jimmy replied, pausing before anxiously looking straight at the camera and uttering, "Hopefully, there are no spoilers here."
Fortunately, his co-stars, including "Game of Thrones" actress Gemma Whelan, quickly reassured him that the "missing phone" plot was common knowledge, sparking smiles and laughter amongst the panel.
Jimmy went on to further detail the plot, explaining, "In season two, Kieran Shaw asked Steve Bradshaw, 'Would you go undercover to try and bring down Shaquille?', who is the main guy on the street. That storyline gets uncovered and crosses paths with another case Sarah is working on." He summarised the plot, saying, "This collision of stories makes it very exciting."
The upcoming series, titled "The Tower 3: Gallowstree Lane", is based on the third novel by Kate London and adapted for the screen by Patrick Harbinson. Jimmy Akingbola, known for his role in "Holby City", revealed that he enjoyed portraying two distinct characters in the ITV drama, as he goes undercover.
Describing his character as "believable and unassuming", Jimmy said, "He has a lot of potential to be someone on the streets - Steve has got dreads, he's been undercover for about two years. We just played around and I talked to the director and showrunner about how does Steve sound, and how does he move, does he smoke and how does he uphold a role which makes people want to lean in and get to know him?"
He continued, "Steve does that as a police officer anyway, so it's a bit like an actor that you apply yourself to a role - it's like how do I try and remove parts of myself to make my character believable in a different way from me? It's been really challenging and exciting to be like 'oh I'm playing Steve undercover in this scene' but in some scenes I'm Steve the cop and you can see the differences."
Rowan, another panel member, interjected, "It sounds like good fun," to which Jimmy responded with a smile and agreement. "The Tower" features Gemma Whelan as DS Sarah Collins, Tahirah Sharif as Lizzie Adama, Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw, and Emmett J. Scanlan as Inspector Kieran Shaw.
"The Tower" will air nightly at 9pm on ITV1 from Monday, 2 September to Thursday, 5 September.
