Yahoo News Exclusive: Beecham House star talks show's fate after first series cliffhanger
ITV's Beecham House concluded on an agonising cliffhanger last night, and fans are already demanding a second series of the period drama from Gurinder Chadha.
The season finale saw an imprisoned John Beecham (Tom Bateman) finally discover that he'd been betrayed by Samuel Parker (Marc Warren), while his lover Margaret (Dakota Blue Richards), his brother Daniel (Leo Suter), and Chandrika (Pallavi Sharda) desperately tried to get him released.
Lion actress Pallavi Sharda has revealed there are ongoing talks about a potential second series, and added that the drama has only skimmed the surface in terms of the politics of that time.
"Ideally as actors, we would love it to keep it going and going," Sharda exclusively told Digital Spy. "I know that there have been talks about a season two, but I don't know at this point what is happening.
"We're very hopeful because there's so much scope that we've only just started to navigate in terms of episode 5 and 6, the political side of what's happening.
"Episodes 1-3 were about setting up the characters and the house and the internal conflicts and now its getting a bit broader, and that's what's really exciting and get[s] audiences, in terms of how the world was operating at that time and the decision-making at the time on behalf of an entire people."
On what she would want for Chandrika going forward, the Australian star continued: "I loved playing her because she's exceptionally powerful. She storms in and takes charge and I think she has a real voice, despite the fact that she's an Indian woman – she has a real voice and arguably, she has the most agency in Beecham House, in terms of being able to say what she believes in, and stand up for herself.
"I think that's a metaphor for the India she's trying to defend. For me it's a metaphor for India that's flailing under external influences.
"She can't ascend to the throne, but she's concerned with what's happened with her people, and think the way John Beecham and his very western family are taking charge of her nephew – she's territorial.
"I think it's really metaphorical the way Gurinder's done that, and I would really love to see how that... can be explored."
Beecham House airs on ITV.
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