’Down Cemetery Road’s Ruth Wilson Breaks Down the Shocking Finale and Whether Sarah Could Return for Season 2: “She Has to Redefine Herself”

[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Down Cemetery Road.]

Summary

• In the Apple TV series ‘Down Cemetery Road,’ a house explosion turns quiet art restorer Sarah into a reckless, determined seeker of justice.
• RuthWilson praises co-star Emma Thompson’s light, playful craft, and says their yin and yang chemistry keeps scenes surprising.
• The season finale serves karmic payback, as three flawed women come out on top.

The events in the Apple TV series Down Cemetery Road, adapted from Mick Herron’s novel of the same name, all started with a house explosion in a quiet suburb that led to the disappearance of a young girl, sending neighbor Sarah Tucker (Ruth Wilson) on a journey that would change her life. In an effort to find the girl, she turns to private investigator Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson), but the two end up unraveling a conspiracy that puts them in danger and directly in the crosshairs of a hired assassin.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Wilson discussed the events of the season finale, the fun she had working alongside Thompson, what she loves about her co-star’s work, playing a character that was desperate for connection, throwing an everyday citizen into the middle of something huge, taking a journey as Sarah breaks free from her deeply claustrophobic existence, the karmic retribution for their enemies, the 4 Non Blondes moment in the car, and whether there might be a Season 2. She also talked about returning as Alice Morgan for the next Luther movie, her love for the characters, and getting to explore what makes her so different.

Collider: I absolutely had no idea how badly I needed you teaming up with Emma Thompson in my life until I watched the series. It was just so much fun to watch you guys together.

RUTH WILSON: It was a lot of fun to do.

Ruth Wilson Loved Collaborating With Emma Thompson on ‘Down Cemetery Road’

“She’s got a brilliant lightness of touch.”

What did you most enjoy about the time you spent together on this? What is Emma Thompson like to share scenes with? What did you learn from working with her and watching how she approaches things?

WILSON: She’s got a brilliant lightness of touch. She’s been doing it for years. She knows everything, inside out. She’s been through every experience on a set. Everything lies very easy on her. It’s all very playful and fun and fast, and I just loved it because it meant it was throwaway and easy. And then, when something’s really serious, it could really ground down, but she was very fluid with that. That was really fun to be around. It was a great energy. What was great about the dynamic was that it kept being surprising, and that was in the writing as much as anything else. My character would surprise her. It wasn’t always one character leading and one behind. They took it in turns. It was like a yin-yang. As soon as we were together, that felt really obvious, but really straightforward and fun to do. I learned, from her, a lightness of touch from working with her.

One of the things I loved about watching you guys together is that your character always seemed like she wanted to hug her but would then be reminded that maybe her vibe doesn’t really say you should come that close to her.

WILSON: It’s so funny, I was learning about my character more, as the show was being filmed, and I found every character that I worked opposite, whether it was Downey, whether it was the girl, or whether it was Zoë, Sarah was desperate for connection. She was very open and very up for creating a relationship with these people and almost clinging onto them for dear life because she was riding their journey and she was sort of like. It felt like she was desperate to hug Zoë, talk to her, have a cup of tea and just chat about things, and chat about life. She wants to be her friend. And then, of course, Zoë has got major intimacy issues. The clash of these two people was really funny, that dynamic of someone who’s desperate to connect with someone who’s like, “Just get off me.” More and more, we discovered that as we had those three episodes together.

Related

A New Sneak Peek For Apple TV’s Mystery Thriller ‘True Detective’ Replacement ‘Down Cemetery Road’ Is Here [Exclusive]

The new mystery series premieres tonight on AppleTV.

You’ve talked about having loved Emma Thompson’s work for a long time. What are the projects you saw her in that really stood out to you and what is it about her work that really caught your attention?

WILSON: She’s just versatile. She’s been on my screen for years. Whether it was in Remains of the Day or Sense and Sensibility or Nanny McPhee, or playing Mrs. Trunchbull, she’s been so much. You watch everything that she can do, and she can do it all. I love the humor that she has and I love how big she goes with characterization as well, in terms of playing Trunchbull or playing Nanny McPhee or Cruella’s baddie in that. She goes there, and I’ve always loved that. There’s a real fun to her work, but there’s a real integrity with those more serious pieces that she also plays and you get really moved. I did the film with her, Saving Mr. Banks, and she’s brilliant in that, absolutely brilliant. It’s really moving. So, she can do it all. It’s always been wonderful to watch her in anything she does.

She was part of what made me love Shakespeare because I loved Much Ado About Nothing.

WILSON: Yeah, that was brilliant. That’s the best adaptation of Much Ado. It’s extraordinary.

It seems like an art restorer would live a quiet, ordinary life, but your character really does find herself entangled in quite a mess. Is there something particularly interesting about playing someone like that, who’s just this regular woman living her life and then finds herself tested from every angle to see what she’ll actually do to save herself and the people that she cares about?

WILSON: Yeah, it’s really interesting. It’s a test of character. It’s throwing an everyday citizen into the middle of something huge and seeing how they will react. It was hard initially because I was like, “She seems quite lost. Who is she? I don’t really get it.” We’re on this journey, but she’s almost driving a car with her hands off the wheel. She’s in the driver’s seat, but she’s not driving it, someone else is. She’s riding in this fast-moving vehicle that’s out of control. What does she do in those scenarios? Action indicates character. You don’t have to have a scene that’s telling the world or telling the audience who the person is and why they’ve done something. It’s just how they react in that moment.

What I felt as it was going on was that there were times when she becomes really childish or really reckless or spontaneous and impulsive, or she gets a bit depressed in moments, and a whole other side of her comes out because she’s put in these extraordinary circumstances. The person she is at the beginning to the person she is now, the end is really quite different. She’s gone on a massive journey. That was more fulfilling, actually, as a job than I anticipated because of that. I didn’t realize, because I only had two scripts initially, that that was going to be what the journey was and that was going to be how the character would unfold.

In ‘Down Cemetery Road,’ Sarah and Zoë Are United by a Deep Moral Core

“She’s been so dishonest with herself for a long time.”

Ruth Wilson as Sarah and Emma Thompson as Zoe looking tense outside in poster artwork for Down Cemetery RoadImage via Apple TV

As things get more dangerous, Sarah becomes stronger and more determined to see things through. She doesn’t know this child. She doesn’t know this woman. But for some reason, she is so determined to finish things. What do you think that says about her? Do you think that she found that unexpectedly exciting?

WILSON: Yes. I think there are loads of things. She’s been so dishonest with herself for a long time, or she’s been hiding part of herself for a long time. Whatever this trauma was when she was younger, when she was a student jumping or falling off this roof on drugs, she deeply ashamed and is scared of that side of herself. That’s part of her that’s trying to be normal, trying to be small, trying to hide away, trying to live in a good way and not aggravate anyone. But that’s deeply claustrophobic and deeply suffocating for her and is not really who she is. Somehow, this opened up an opportunity for her, and she doesn’t even know. It’s subconscious for her to escape from the life that she was in and rediscover who she really is. She is tenacious. She is very strong-willed. She is reckless. She’s dangerous. She is slightly impulsive but has a deep moral core.

That’s what unites her and Zoë. They’ve both got this moral desire to seek justice and expose corruption, whatever it is. I think that’s what makes her have this drive. There is something about this girl that represents herself in some way. The girl seems brave and courageous and creative. If she can save that girl, she can save herself. That’s all subconscious. That’s all something she doesn’t really understand, but I think that’s probably what drives her. If she doesn’t complete this, it means her life means nothing. It gives her purpose and it gives her something to fight for.

Related

Apple TV’s Gripping New Thriller Is Surging Through the Global Charts, and Everyone Should Be Noticing

Watch out, ‘Ted Lasso.’

I actually found it particularly satisfying that the men that both of your characters are facing off with in the finale bring pain on themselves. Zoë stabs one of them in the eye and he falls, hits his head, and dies. And then, Sarah watches this guy pick up the gun and end up shooting three of his own fingers off. Did that feel like a great karmic retribution for these men who had just been chasing them?

WILSON: I watched the whole show. Emma and I did a marathon screening session of it. By the end, you’re left with these three women. It’s Zoë, it’s Sarah, and it’s also Lydia Leonard’s character. They’re all flawed women. They’re all absurd in their own ways, but they are brilliant and they come out on top, and they didn’t do it by killing people. What’s brilliant is that Sarah doesn’t end up shooting the gun and killing someone, and neither does Zoë. They kill themselves. The incompetence of those characters or their own pride or their own belief that they are winners is actually what is their downfall. I think that’s what’s brilliant about it. That’s what’s brilliant about Morwenna [Banks]’ writing. That’s what’s brilliant about Mick [Herron]’s writing. These women don’t become killers. They don’t have to. It’s the incompetence of those who think they’re in power and think they’re untouchable that ends up being what brings them down.

Trash eventually takes itself out, and it felt like that really happened with those two characters, in particular.

WILSON: Yeah, exactly.

I hadn’t read this book series, so I didn’t know whether Zoë was dead or alive in that moment before she showed back up in the finale. I cheered because I thought, “Okay, now we can have another season with these two.” Have you had any conversations about a possible Season 2? I know now that there are four books and that your character isn’t in books two and three, so have they said anything about how that could be handled?

WILSON: Not really. We’re waiting to hear if it’s going to go again and we should know pretty soon. No real decisions are made until that happens. They’re hoping we will. There are talks of maybe, but there haven’t been any real discussions as to what that might look like. We’re just waiting to find out. People have got to watch it first, and then we’ll see. Hopefully, Zoë and Sarah will be brought back together.

Ruth Wilson Believes Life Will Be Very Different for ’Down Cemetery Road’s Sarah, Moving Forward

“I think she’d probably go and ring on Zoë’s door a few times.”

Ruth Wilson as Sarah holding onto Ivy Quoi as Dinah in Down Cemetery RoadImage via Apple TV

After everything, what do you think would be next for your character? What do you think she might want for herself?

WILSON: I don’t know. I know what happens in the books, so I know where she ends up and what goes on. I think she’d probably go and ring on Zoë’s door a few times, just to ask for a coffee and to talk through that whole weird thing. I don’t know. I don’t think she’ll go back to her husband. That job is probably over too. She has to redefine herself and discover what she wants next. It’s quite freeing for her in some way. It’s quite exciting to think about where Sarah might go. I don’t anticipate she’ll become a private detective or Zoë’s second hand. I don’t think she’ll become that, but maybe. We’ll see. We’ll see what they suggest.

I always love a good singing in the car moment, and you have one in this with the 4 Non Blondes song, “What’s Up?” Personally, I find that to be a song that’s hard not to sing along to. When you have a scene like that, do you get to choose the song or was that song selected? How did that come about?

WILSON: There were a few discussions back and forth about what song it should be. Morwenna and I were discussing it and eventually it was down to two. I can’t read the other tune, to be honest. That’s when I was like, “Okay, I think I can sing this if I need to. know it, at least. We can let it all out. Okay, that sounds good.” But then, it was so brilliantly done because, in any other show, perhaps the clichéd version or the sentimental version of that would have Zoë join in and they’d both be singing as they drove down the highway. But instead, she just turns it off and puts something else on.

I love that moment because it also feels like a reference of the whole show, where you think you might go down into this genre cliché with an emotional, sentimental moment for me, and then it just pulls the rug from you and it pulls the rug from the character too. Sarah is almost going down into this, “I’m going to cry. I’m going to have this moment.” And then, she’s just told, “No. No, that’s not going to happen.” That’s what the whole show is, really. It felt, to me, like a symbol of what this show represents. It’s always surprising. It never lets you sit in too deep a moment for too long. They’re constantly moving. It’s much more human for that, actually.

It’s fun because it seems like Sarah is afraid to be too loud in that moment because it could disturb Zoë. But then, Zoë puts on the song that’s so loud because she wants to stop any emotion that might be happening. There was so much going on in that moment without them actually communicating it to each other.

WILSON: And it was great to shoot. We were in a beautiful location in Brecon Beacons. It was stunning and we had really beautiful weather. It had been cloudy and gray for most of the shoot. And then, suddenly that day, the sun came out, and it was perfect. It was exactly what we wanted. We were in that beautiful car, just driving up and down for hours, doing the scene in different ways. It was wonderful.

Well, I hope we get to see Sarah and Zoë together again. You guys were just so fun to watch together.

WILSON: It’s fun, isn’t it? It’s a fun piece. It’s a really good piece of TV. Fingers crossed.

Ruth Wilson Is Excited to Revisit Her ‘Luther’ Character Alice Morgan Again

“What’s happened to her now and how is she different?”

Idris Elba as John Luther standing next to and looking at Ruth Wilson as Alice Morgan in LutherImage via BBC

I also have to tell you that I was so excited to hear that you would be returning for the next Luther movie and that Alice would be coming back because she is one of my all-time favorite characters on television. I’ve loved all the layers you’ve brought to her. It’s been so fascinating to go on her journey. How do you feel about returning to that character again? Were you surprised to be returning, or is it something you had conversations about?

WILSON: No, we didn’t have conversations about the first movie, but then the conversations came up a year ago. I wasn’t surprised, in some ways. I thought if they were going to do another movie, they probably need to bring her back. So, it didn’t surprise me that she might come back into the fold. I’m like, “Is she ever going to die? I might be playing her until I’m 80.” I’ve got no idea. I sort of hope not, but I think she might be around slaying people and marrying lots of men and becoming a widow many times over. I don’t know. She’s brilliant and funny, and I always think she gets the best lines and she’s just brilliantly anarchic and delicious with a heart of gold in some ways as well. Half of it is gold and half of it is stone. I love playing her. I always have. She’s very fun to do. And the dynamic with Idris [Elba] is always really brilliant. That chemistry is always there. So, it’s lovely to go back and revisit that and see what we can do differently this time. It’s been a few years, so it’s like, “What’s happened to her now and how is she different?” I’m starting to work on it. We’ll see. It’s going to film next year. It’s great.

Do you get nervous, especially when you’ve had that time away? Were you nervous about reading the script to figure out what they’d be doing with her now and what’s next for her?

WILSON: Yeah, a little bit. Sometimes those things make you feel quite nervous because you’re like, “How do we do that? How did I create that 10 or 12 years ago?” I’m not the same person. I’m not the same actor. I’ve changed, myself. I think you just have to accept that is going to come in and be infused into the character itself. You’re not going to be able to recreate exactly what you did. So, it’s about, I suppose, finding something new each time. If you can ground it in some sort of real truth or emotion, then that always helps, obviously. You go, “What are our stakes here and how do we make this feel dangerous again?”

Alice is unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen with her, so it will be interesting to see.

WILSON: Yeah. You’ll see

Release Date

October 29, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Showrunner

Morwenna Banks

Directors

Samuel Donovan, Börkur Sigþórsson, Natalie Bailey

Writers

Morwenna Banks, Rose Heiney, Kevin Cecil, Emily Marcuson, Mick Herron

Down Cemetery Road is available to stream on Apple TV. Check out the trailer: