Warning: this article contains spoilers for season one of The Tourist.

BBC One’s high-tension thriller drama The Tourist began simply enough: a man (Jamie Dornan) suffering from amnesia desperately attempts to figure out who he is – before the people pursuing him through the Australian outback catch and kill him, that is.

Over time, though, it became something far more nuanced, dealing with complex themes around morality and self-identity. And that, combined with the show’s cliffhanger ending, means that many viewers are still thinking about the TV series now.

Thank goodness, then, that the BBC confirmed that we’re getting a second series of the show, which will once again be created and written by Jack and Harry Williams and produced by award-winning Two Brothers Pictures (Baptiste, The Missing, Fleabag). And another thank goodness that we don’t have much longer to wait until season two lands on our screens.

Here’s what we know so far about the nerve-jangling mystery thriller’s second outing.

What’s the plot of The Tourist season 2?

We always assumed that Dornan’s character, ‘The Man’, was a good guy.

As it turns out, though, he wasn’t. Not really.

That’s right: towards the end of the season one finale, we discovered a few key (and horrifying) details about Dornan’s character:

• His real name is Elliot
• Elliot worked as an accountant for a drug lord named Kostas (Alex Dimitriades)
• Elliot went on the run after he fell in love with Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin), aka Kostas’s fiancée and stole a bag with over £1 million stashed inside, obviously
• Elliot used to force people to smuggle heroin for Kostas, resulting in the tragic deaths of two women who were killed when the bags filled with drugs exploded inside of them

The revelation proves too much for Elliot to bear, especially as it seemingly shatters his relationship with traffic cop Helen (Danielle Macdonald) into a thousand tiny pieces. Cue him purposefully crashing his car in a fit of despair, before taking an overdose at the hospital in a desperate attempt to escape his seemingly all-consuming guilt.

Except…

Well, then a text arrives from Helen, suggesting that the pair could potentially reconcile. And, considering Dornan and Macdonald are both heading to Ireland to begin filming the second season together, we like to think that their characters might just do that.

That or, y’know, Helen finally makes it into detective school. Either or.

Who else will star in The Tourist season 2?

While we probably won’t be seeing Shalom Brune-Franklin reprise her role in season two (after all, she did bleed to death in the back of a car), there are several old and new faces already confirmed to star in The Tourist season two.

Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald are reprising their roles alongside Greg Larsen, who will reprise his role as Ethan Krum, Helen’s (awful) fiancé.

Newly joining the cast are Conor MacNeill – who appeared alongside Jamie Dornan in the BBC’s The Fall – The Northman’s Olwen Fouéré, Justice League’s Francis Magee, One Of Us Is Lying’s Mark McKenna, Outlander’s Diarmaid Murtagh and Neon’s Nessa Matthews. 

When will The Tourist season 2 be available to watch on BBC One?

The Tourist returns on 1 January 2024 on BBC One and iPlayer. The full series will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am, ahead of episode one airing at 9pm on BBC One. In the meantime, you can watch the new trailer below.

Images: Two Brothers Pictures/BBC