Death Valley's Timothy Spall and Gwyneth Keyworth tease "deeper" relationship in season 2

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]Hello and welcome to Behind the Screens with not Laura Rakowski. Uh my name is Hugh Fitton filling in because I'm here on the set of Death Valley, the BBC's murder mystery show starring Timothy Spool and Gwyneth Keworth. Specifically, I'm here on the set of John Chapel, Timothy Spool's character's house, his cottage. Uh and it is very, very nice, very. And now I'm going to take a look around.

[00:00:52]Um, thank you for having me.

[00:00:54]>> Thank you. Thanks for coming to set and see John Chapel's house. Series 2 is so much easier. You It's all the parameters are kind of set. You You already know what doesn't work. One physical spaces you've got access to. It just frees you up to just go, "Okay, like what's the most interesting story?"

[00:01:11]>> Where do we find John and Jane in series 2 as a duo?

[00:01:15]>> So, in series 1 was very much about Janie being the the fan girl to Jon and him being the genius detective. And it in romcom terms it was almost like the first act where we're getting them together but the end we ended series one with the cliffhanger that John has been seeing Janie's mom and it's torpedoed the relationship. So she's suddenly gone from this differential hero worshiper and now they've not spoken in months.

[00:01:40]She wants nothing to do with him. But both of them really know subconsciously they're kind of each other's only friends and the only people who understand each other. So when the first murder of series 2 happens and brings them back together, there's a there's more spikiness than there's been before, but there's also that acceptance.

[00:01:57]>> Next up, it was time to explore Tbach police station itself, where Janie Chapel, played by Gwyneth Kewith, and Timothy Spool, solved their murders. And who better to show us around than one of the other cops on the beat.

[00:02:08]>> Hello, I'm Ryick and Gulla and I play DC Evanri. Please, welcome to our set of Death Valley. Welcome to my crib.

[00:02:25]This is uh the reception area. This is where we bring all the criminals to be signed in first or people come and make inquiries about missing people or a murder. And uh if you have a look behind you here, there's uh some some uh posters of the police in case you didn't know where you were. And uh the drug amnesty bin as well.

[00:02:46]any good goodies in there?

[00:02:48]>> Oh yeah, I put my sandwich wrapper in there accidentally. I think it's locked.

[00:02:53]But yeah, this is usually where we have a lot of the people waiting to be seen or also where we have a lot of our scenes as well where sometimes we'll just meet in the middle. If you see over there, that's the uh the vending machine which uh has a lot of scenes there with my character. And um also all of the uh food and drink are in date. So sometimes I just take what I want when I get bored.

[00:03:16]>> So is it a working vending machine or >> No, you can just open it and just take it out, which makes it even better. Oh yes, this is actually where the interrogation room would be, but I think it's locked. So you would have the people in here who are watching the the interrogation go down, sitting in here making notes, and then you'd have the the criminal and usually Janie Malawen in there who's holding it down. And then this is where Cliff, our receptionist, sits, played by the lovely Mike Bubbins.

[00:03:43]>> Should we have a look upstairs?

[00:03:45]>> Yes, please come and follow me.

[00:03:48]So, as you can see here, this is our great sign that holds a lot of respectable names.

[00:03:58]A lot of names which I believe maybe were made up. If we make our way through here, lots of folders and files about many, many murders, many criminals. And this is where, of course, our boss sits.

[00:04:11]Uh, Mr. Clark, played by the lovely Stefan Rodri. And, uh, many, many great, uh, machiats in here for John Chapel, which, uh, my character so lovingly makes. The, uh, the criminal board. This is, uh, oh, no, sorry. This is the the murdered who was murdered on the in the toilet, actually. And honestly, I really respected this man for putting his head first into the into the men's toilets.

[00:04:37]Um, fair to say, I would rather, yeah, do some stunts like Tom Cruz than do that. Respect to him. And yeah, this is where the map of Tbach, the place we live in in Death Valley's sandbox. So, yeah, this is usually where I sit. Um, my book isn't here, but I've been leading reading the born legacy.

[00:05:00]Um, yes. Uh, great great books. They actually put it here as a prop book, but now I'm 520 pages through. And, uh, yeah, I love reading. Really, really love reading. But yeah, this is usually where the magic happens where we check CCTVs, you know, and, uh, it's actually not a working computer as you can see.

[00:05:19]But, uh, someone is usually under here pressing the remote to press play. Then it makes the [music] screens magic. And uh yeah, many latte makiato also made here for John Chapel. Shout out to Timothy Spore.

[00:05:33]This is also where we have a lot of other people sitting around and uh doing doing lots of work, cracking cases. And uh yeah, this is uh another corridor full of wonderful trinkets and miscellaneous adventures.

[00:05:49]And uh here we have the uh the fundraiser which we've been working on for a long time. We're still at the same place, but you know, that's it's a lot of money saved. Most of it coming from DCI Clark's family. And yeah, this is where we actually do a lot of scenes to be honest. um a lot of scenes for my character, especially because I have a lot of moving scenes where I'm on the phone to to Janie [music] and uh yeah, we always have someone who's uh the cameraman who's either moving with the camera tied onto his back or maybe it's a it's a pulley and we've got to time it in in correlation with the actors in there and then me on the phone in here.

[00:06:25]So, it's always very moving and uh yeah, it's quite cinematic. Oh yes, this is actually a newly placed room that I'm about to take you through. This is our server room. So in the server room is where we keep all the database of things. So any CCTV footage, any uh witness uh testaments, any recorded conversations that we've had. And this is where we store everything here. These are all all of our old computers that we used that malfunction due to Latte Makiato being spilt. And uh this is our fully functioning new working one now, which uh we have uh quite a few scenes here there where I'm uh breaking down the CCTV. My character is specified as someone who's a tech gadget person. So yeah, he loves to be in here. He loves taking his time away from people either to be on a computer, whether it's playing a game or finding a villain on CCTV or reading the Born Legacy.

[00:07:27]>> You gone fully method. [laughter] >> Uh yeah, I think yeah, this this is this is about about it for our station really. Um, yeah. Thank you so much for for joining me on the tour and uh we hope that we don't see you here anytime soon unless you come in as a a witness, which please do because we're still looking for the missing cat, Percy.

[00:07:50]>> Later, while visiting the police station set, we also caught up with the big boss.

[00:07:58]>> I'm Stefan Rody and I play DCI Barry Clark.

[00:08:03]>> Was it your last day of filming? My last day of filming today. Yeah.

[00:08:06]>> Congratulations.

[00:08:07]>> Thank you.

[00:08:07]>> Thank you.

[00:08:08]>> What's it been like as filming series 2?

[00:08:10]Does it feel more like you're getting the band back together? Do you kind of know what you're doing? Everyone's kind of in sync a bit more maybe.

[00:08:16]>> Yeah, I think there is a sense of that.

[00:08:17]I mean, obviously with first series, you're finding your feet a bit in terms of tone >> and in terms of the characters and the way they relate to each other. Um, having seen it all together then and doing a second series, it's it's easier to slip it on like a like an old pair of shoes.

[00:08:34]>> Obviously, you've done few of these now.

[00:08:36]Do you think you would be any better at solving any real life murder cases now than when you started? Well, the joke is that my partner um you know, she treats me a bit like like John Chapel in that, you know, she just rolls her eyes because whenever there's a real crime because I've played so many cops, I have this notion that I understand cop procedure, you know, and I'm always sort of asking questions about, oh, didn't they check the CCTV on that and da da da and they could, you know, they could trace him through his use of his cards and d and I say stupid things like that and you know, she often has to You're not a real cop. [laughter] >> So, there is an element of John Chapel in me that thinks that I could solve crimes. Yeah.

[00:09:17]>> Soon the set was back in action and we're here watching Timothy Spore and Gwyneith Keworth try their best to catch criminals.

[00:09:27]>> So, today we are filming I think the penultimate scene of episode 5, which is our locked room kind of murder mystery episode. There's a a murder on a police training course that Janie's heading up.

[00:09:40]One of the police officers is the killer, so she shuts down the station.

[00:09:43]And that's our kind of a modern homage to those kind of Agatha Christie and then the Wan style stories. But it's but still with that sense of real world police characters. We get to have fun with the kind of arch setting, but go like what would it be like if normal people like us were trapped in there?

[00:10:01]>> And while Tim and Gwyneith weren't able to chat to us the day we visited, we caught up with them later.

[00:10:06]I forget that it's a set sometimes. Like we go up the stairs and I'm like, "Oh yeah, it doesn't actually go anywhere."

[00:10:11]Like like this there's a cut off point.

[00:10:14]And I particularly think this series Tim and I got clo really close. Um I think, you know, he is such a brilliant actor, but not only is he a brilliant, he's just a brilliant co-worker. The way [music] he holds a set, the way he like the way he approaches work and approaches people is something that I really admire and have like really learned a lot from.

[00:10:35]>> Gwyn is such a brilliant actress and such a brilliant character [music] actress and somebody who knows how to and she's on really on top of this character that you play if I you know play John for what he is and all of his complexes. She plays her for what she is in her simplicity but underneath it complexity and they come together and we're generous with each with each other which we have been from the day one. We know that that's how it works. No one's trying to get one over on the other from you know I'm better than you and you know it doesn't work like that.

[00:11:08]>> That's the end of our day and one of the last days of filming series 2, [music] but everyone seems convinced we'll be back for another journey into Death Valley. The ambition for Death Valley Alley is that we run and run and that we do become, you know, like one of all those beloved murder mystery shows that, [music] you know, we we all know and love like Jonathan Creek and Midsummer Murders and um I feel like we are the new wave of those along with other shows like Ludvik. [music] Um so yeah, the ambition is that we have many more of those to come in future.

[00:11:41]>> I'm not even begun to get bored of Death Valley yet. It's just every time you think, have we maybe run out of ideas?

[00:11:48]You sit down in the writer's room and it just comes out so easily. I think cuz I love writing John and Janie and they're such a fun partnership. And I think when you have that, the hard work disappears.

[00:11:59]You're just thinking, what could we do to them next? And there's there's I mean, as TV has shown over the last 100 years or however long, we're not going to run out of plots for crime. There's an endless supply of them as long as you make them different. and interesting enough then. Yeah, I could happily keep going.