Ellis is set in the north of England but filming for season 2 didn't take place there

Channel 5's popular detective drama Ellis is returning for season 2.

The new series will see Sharon D Clarke reprise her role as DCI Ellis, a detective fighting a system rife with flaws, alongside her right-hand man DS Harper, played by Andrew Gower, as they continue to look into failing investigations across the north of England.

The new series takes Ellis and Harper from a rural village, where the suspicious death of a beloved community leader exposes long-nursed resentments, to the industrial shadow of a stone works, where the death of a young woman reveals a hidden network of coercion and exploitation.

And while set in the north of England, and the fictional village of Ashenham for episodes one and two at least, filming for Ellis actually took place in Northern Ireland.

Asked what viewers can expect from series two, Sharon revealed that the locations in this series are even more "beautiful" than the first. She teased: "For series two, our audiences can expect more. More joy, more twists, more turns, more cases, more beautiful locations, more wonderful guests. Lots of red herrings, lots of clues to trip you up, but also things to make your head spin and make you think."

She added: "We have more great locations coming up. That’s the beautiful thing about the show: it’s location-based, so you’re not in the same police station every week with the same colleagues. You get out and about and you see different people, and such beautiful, lovely creative talent have joined the Ellis family this year."

Episode one, which airs on Tuesday, March 10, will introduce viewers to Slemish Mountain, as the Ash Tor scenes were shot there. Meanwhile, the fictional village of Ashenham, where episode one is set, was shot in the coastal village of Glenarm, famously home to Glenarm Castle.

Meanwhile, the industrial site in episode 2 was filmed at a family-run building supplies company on the outskirts of Belfast, and Downpatrick and Drumaness were used as the hero village of Elmsly.

The exterior police station and the Quinn family home were shot at Downpatrick thanks to the village’s stunning Georgian brick buildings.

Speaking about shooting on Slemish Mountain and how filming across Northern Ireland shaped the experience of making series two, Sharon said: "It's glorious. Costa del Belfast! I’m not going to lie, the weather is still brutal. I still find it brutal. But it is so verdant.

"And the fact that you can get everywhere so quickly. So you can be in the city centre, and then you can be in rolling hillsides within moments. It’s been an absolute pleasure seeing this countryside in all its gloriousness.

"We’ve been up Slemish mountain, which was brutal, but beautiful at the top. You can see the cows grazing, and there’s wind farms, and it’s just beautiful emeralds and limes and olives, there’s all manner of greens. We watched the fog rolling in, or what I thought was fog, but it turned out to be rain. We watched it come up and come towards us, and then it was over us, and then it rained horizontally and passed, and we watched the next bank come in, and that’s how the day was.

"But when it was clear, it was glorious. It was just glorious, watching sunsets and being able to breathe deeply and meditate in nature, getting around the countryside again and seeing what more delights Northern Ireland was going to bless us with."

While Andrew, who plays Harper, said of the filming locations: "It’s special. The landscape is amazing. It gives you everything you need. You’ve got the hills, the beaches, the industry, so it’s an amazing experience. I had never filmed in Northern Ireland or even been here before series one so it was a great experience for me to get to know not only the amazing infrastructure that they have for filming, but also to get to know Belfast and the beautiful landscapes of Northern Ireland."

He added: "We’ve got a lot to be proud of when it comes to our scenery, and Northern Ireland really offers that. It gives each episode a real backdrop and palette to play with."

Ellis S2 starts Tuesday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 11 at 9pm on 5.

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