Today is quite the Tom Riley Tuesday treat! Lots of articles and interviews with Tom appearing online to promote new ITV series Dark Heart, which begins at 9pm on 31st October. 

This week's TV Times has a mini-review as well as an interview with Tom discussing the series and his character. A full scan of the interview is available in the galleries. 

It’s two years since this crime thriller debuted on ITV Encore but now it’s making a welcome return with a six-part series.

Tom Riley is impressive as haunted cop 
DI Will ‘Staffe’ Wagstaffe who is finding it hard to move on from the murder of his parents when he was a teenager.

His work doesn’t exactly provide him with any light relief, either, and this two-part opener finds him investigating the death of a suspected paedophile. When 
a shady QC is targeted, Staffe looks into whether there could be a connection to an earlier case.

But the troubled detective is also distracted by his hatred for the boyfriend of his sister Juliette (Charlotte Riley).  **** TV Times

Tom Riley tells TV Times about his high-octane crime thriller Dark Heart…

TV Times: What makes Dark Heart stand out from other detective dramas?

Tom Riley: “It feels bigger and more expansive this time. It’s as much about this guy’s personal journey as the cases. His parents’ murder is a cold case but it’s an ongoing mystery. Everything he does is based around the idea that maybe something will make sense of it.”

TVT: How dark are his regular cases?

TR: “They are nasty and depraved and there’s a real danger that manifests itself over the series. The monsters he’s chasing begin to inform him as a person though. So his grip on morality is loose. He’s plays within the parameters of the law but he’s volatile and goes rogue on a daily basis.”

TVT: What’s his relationship like with his sister Juliette (Charlotte Riley)?

TR: “Because Charlotte and I are both called Riley, we joke that we were separated at birth! But Will and Juliette rub each other up the wrong way. He takes unasked-for steps to protect his family, which will probably damage them irreparably…”

TVT: Have you had to take part in any big stunts?

TR: “I’ve got a couple but they smartly put them in the last week of filming, so you wonder, ‘Is someone going to get hurt in this?!’ We had a fantastic stunt that I’m present at. It’s the most tense I’ve felt on set, just the general fear in the room of, ‘This could go horribly wrong’. It didn’t but it’s a good scene.”

TVT: What do you get recognised most for?

TR: “It depends where I am in the world because outside this country, it’s Da Vinci’s Demons. Or if they’re under 14, it’s an episode of Doctor Who. But an episode of Lewis where I played an autistic art student is the one thing that I get asked about the most. I was staying in a house in LA and we needed to extend the lease and the landlord said, ‘Were you in Inspector Lewis? My son is autistic and it meant a lot to us. You can stay for three extra weeks!’”