When we were first introduced to Elliot in Gangs of London, he was the fish-out-of-water undercover cop in over his head with the Wallaces. But now? He’s seated alongside them, running his own cocaine operation and proving a force in the city.

But when one of his drug shipments causes disaster, with hundreds dying as a result, Elliot goes on a personal mission to find those responsible and soon finds himself confronting his own past.

He realises the only person who may be able to help is Sean Wallace – his former friend turned enemy now residing behind bars. No pressure then.

Ahead of the new series, actor Sopé Dirisu speaks about Elliot’s evolution, fan reaction to Gangs of London so far, and what we can expect from this year’s series.

It is wicked to be back for another season. It’s really special. The fan response to our series over the last five years or so has been really incredible. The engagement online, the engagement in the streets. All of you who come jump on my back and be like, ‘Ahh I love Gangs of London!’ I’m shocked every time, but I appreciate you. So thank you very much.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but every season of Gangs of London is ever so slightly different. There’s a different texture and atmosphere this year. I suppose it is a murder mystery, because a mass murder happens in the first episode, and all the characters are trying to get to the bottom of who’s done it, and they’re all doing it in their own different ways.

It’s an ensemble show, so we follow lots of different characters and the different arcs and how they intertwine and intermesh. Gangs of London for me, it’s always been a family show. Not family friendly! But a family show. Not only in terms of the cast and crew feeling like a wonderful unit that we get to come back to every season, but a story about families: the Wallace family, the Dumani family, how gangs can be families, and I think that’s a real focus of the storytelling in season three.

When the series was first created there was a lot of conversation about how it was like a heightened version of London. The Gotham-ization of London in the way that Gotham is New York, or actually New Jersey, I found out this year. The London in Gangs of London is based on London, but it can’t function in the same way. I always found that sometimes separated it from being a bit more relatable, which I think was intentional, but this year there’s a bit more of an anchor in the real world in the way the crime families operate and the risks they take; the gunplay that happens in the street now has a real life effect.

We introduce the mayor of London, played by the incredible T’Nia Miller - we’re so blessed to have her - and we see how crime interacts with politics and the fallout of the actions of the gangs. I remember watching superhero films when I was younger, and seeing the mass destruction that happens in those films and I’m always wondering, like, okay, sweet, the good guys beat the bad guy, but how does the city heal from this? And for the first time in our series, we get to see how the city responds to the crime gangs that exist within it.

The journey of Elliot over the course of the series of Gangs of London has been crazy, and I think if I’d been told what it was at the beginning, I would have wanted to play even more. I wouldn’t have believed the creators when they told me. It’s so interesting that this guy, who had a wonderful moral compass at the beginning as a police officer trying to infiltrate the gangs in order to bring them to justice, seems now to have joined them without a mind towards redemption.

At the end of season two, Elliot has Sean strung up and he tells him, ‘watch, I’m going to become you, I’m going to do it better than you ever did’. At the beginning of season three, he’s living up to his promise. Before, he had to live this duplicitous life whereby he was Elliot Carter at home and Elliot Finch in the streets, now those two personas seem to have merged into one, and he’s very comfortable with it.

At the beginning of season three, we meet him not only operating within the system of the crime system of the gangs of London, but also seeming to head his own unit. He has his own drug factory. He’s got a seat at the table, and he’s a respected voice in that space. But while people will listen to him, it makes sense that nobody really trusts him. Rightly so. This guy used to be a police officer, yet he’s proven himself: the way he fights, the way he moves, the way he strategizes, has been to the benefit of the gangs. It’s a remarkable transformation and not one I feel is unjust. I think over the course of the series, we’ve really earned it. I’m really excited for you to all see where it ends up by the end of season three.

The mass murder that occurs at the beginning of episode one is that the cocaine the gangs are distributing throughout the city has been spiked with fentanyl. Obviously that causes a lot of damage, and that poses a really big problem for the gangs. Not only is their supply chain messed up, but it’s affecting their customers. You don’t want your customers to die, otherwise they can’t buy more drugs. Elliot has a large vested interest in this because now that he’s moved into being more on the criminal side, he takes personal responsibility not only towards the gangs, but ethically as well towards his customers and the city. He’s the middle point and needs to get to the bottom of it.

That leads him back to Sean, because all roads lead back to Sean, apparently. But in that conversation, Sean leaves a little nugget in his mind that leads Elliot on some crazy journey throughout the series where he’s chasing both the spiking of the cocaine, but also the truth about his family.

Like I’ve mentioned before, working on Gangs of London is like working with family. Not just because of the crime families that exist within the series, but because of the way the cast and crew have come together over these years and learnt to rely on each other, work together, love each other. It’s been wonderful, and I suppose one of the hardest parts of creating a family at work is that you have to lose people.

Whilst I’m sure it’s good dramatically, it’s hard on the heart, because the series won’t be the same, making it without them. Those actors gave such incredible performances and really brought their characters to life, really added to the richness of the fabric of the series.

Those characters, those personalities, those performances are just inimitable. So yeah, we’re going to have to scale up. We’re going to have to do something different. The texture will change, the environment will change, but Gangs of London will prevail, I suppose.

When we were casting the mayor of London, they threw their net wide and far. We were really looking for a powerful, intelligent, just wonderful actress, and they really took their time with it and found a real gem. I’m so glad to have been working with T’Nia Miller this year, my scenes with her are some of my favourites of the series. They’re not explosive, they’re not violent, but still so much that’s happening because of what she brings in her performance.

But Gangs of London is a show about explosions and violence and someone who really brought that this year was Andrew Koji playing Zeek. His character is so important for the future of the series as well as season three, and we needed to find an actor who had the chops, had the physical background to be able to carry that character and the story. Andrew does that with ease. He’s so amazing. I was actually a bit worried, because he actually has a martial arts background and I just pretend to do it. So I was like, ‘I’m going to get my ass kicked here!’. But he was super professional, super athletic. I learned lots from him.

Every year we’re trying to at least maintain, if not top of what we did the year before. This year, we welcomed Adam Horton as our fight designer, and he wanted to ramp it up, and I think he really did. There’s an excellent sequence in the first episode that we shot

in a real fairground. When Adam showed us the pre-visualization for that sequence during the read through, the whole room lost its s**t because of this one moment. The fight itself is excellent and it’s got an excellent story to it, great journey, great pacing, but the way the fight ends, honestly, when I saw it for the first time, I had to stand up and clap for him. And I hope that same response is enlisted in our audiences when you get to watch it.

Despite there being lots of change year on year, some things are better when they don’t change. Some relationships have really grown and blossomed over the course of making this series for the last six years, and one of those for me is 100% Mens-Sana Tamakloe, my stunt double. As far as I’m concerned, Mens has one of the easiest jobs in the industry because as a stunt double, he’s supposed to get hurt. But I do all of it getting hurt because I do all my own stunts – that’s not me flexing, I actually do! (laughs) But there are some that I’m so glad that Mens is there for.

I’ll never forget in season one, when Elliot gets flipped over head, his head’s covered by his own jacket, onto a washing machine, and in that same sequence, he gets dashed against the corner of a wall. When I saw those presented to me I was just like, ‘bro, you know I’m just a human being?!’ But in came Mens padded up as he needed to be, and he did those sequences without complaining, over and over again.

It got to a point over these years of making the show, I’ve just become really proud of him because the stunt man’s life is not easy. That wear and tear is crazy, but he keeps himself in good nick. He’s always joyful and always gracious, and he’s really become like a big brother to me. I’ve learned a lot from him, and I’m really grateful this wasn’t the job that brought us together, but is the one that solidified our relationship. So thank you Mens, don’t die, please!

I’m so grateful our paths crossed in this lifetime. He is directing one of Sky’s greatest TV shows in a language he didn’t speak 18 months ago, with people he’d never met before in a completely different environment, culture, and language, and still created something that we’re all really proud of.

I’m really proud of him, for the journey he’s made as a human being over this time, but having seen some of his work beforehand, I was so excited to work with him to create action and horror in the same way he does. His sensibilities are incredible, and I’m so glad that we get to experience that on this show. He has such a phenomenal energy in a way I hadn’t experienced in my career so far. I can’t wait to work with him again.

Bloody, intense and unimaginable.