Series two of Dinosaur, starring, written and created by Ashley Storrie, will land on BBC iPlayer on Thursday 5 February from 6am and is on the BBC Scotland channel on the same day from 9pm. The series will broadcast on BBC Three from Saturday 7 February at 10pm and 10.30pm followed by a release on Hulu later that month.
Eight months after we last saw her, Nina (Ashley Storrie) is knee-deep in mud on an Isle of Wight dig site, living her palaeontology dream. Or at least, that’s what she tells herself. Actuallty she’s exhausted, missing Glasgow, her family, Lee - oh, and her home comforts, namely Real Housewives marathons with Evie and Sausage rolls.
When she finally returns to Scotland, she finds that everything has changed. Her workplace has moved, there’s some big family news, plus she’s thrown into an awkward feelings triangle between Lee and an unexpected new arrival. She has learnt to handle change. But this much change, all at once?
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Interview: Ashley Storrie (Nina)
What has the response been like to Dinosaur so far?
Series one of Dinosaur was a success that I couldn't have imagined. I get to speak to people from all over the world who resonate with a woman in Glasgow and that makes me feel very heartened. I think the past two years, Scotland has produced some amazing television with Scottish voices and it's gone all over the world. It's about what's in your heart and hearts are universal. And I think that's what Dinosaur’s proved.
Series one went on to win multiple awards, can you tell us what that meant to you?
To get support from the Scottish BAFTAs, I mean, that was a really, really, really weird time. My mother passed away two weeks before we went to the Scottish BAFTAs or maybe a week before. So, it was a very strange experience but what a great way to end a year that was a sad year. And you know what? The funny thing was, as my mum predicted it, I brought an audio recording of her and she said “I'm going to die right before something big happens for you and I'm going to steal all the attention.” And she was right.
Are there tributes to your Mum within this series?
Shortly after we got the nominations for the Scottish BAFTA, my mum passed away and I'm really, really grateful that everybody involved in Dinosaur let me put little tributes to my mum in series two. There’s a character named after her, Janey, and there's also a wee picture of her on the wall in the MacArthur's house. So, she's there with us, which is very nice.
How were things left at the end of series one, and what should viewers know going into series two?
At the end of series one, Nina was headed off to the Isle of Wight, she was going to meet Lee, the coffee man, in Knutsford and by the start of series two, I think what you should know is that when Nina makes plans, God laughs. She's got choices to make about her career, about her heart, about what she's going to wear. Lots of decisions. And every autistic person knows we hate making decisions so it's tough for her. It's tough.
Can you tell us a bit about the relationships we’ll see in series two of Dinosaur?
Lee and Nina's relationship in Dinosaur season one was this burgeoning, sweet, cute thing with these two people who didn't really know each other very well. In series two, these are people who have been texting each other, they’ve been talking to each other, they're close, they're pals with VAT added on, like something else might be coming down the pipeline. But Nina has decisions to make and one of the decisions is where she stands with her new work colleague, Clayton, who is a big, handsome American and he is very, very BookTok-coded.
What is it like filming in Glasgow?
Filming in Glasgow is one of the greatest experiences in the world. Glasgow is the best city in the world. I'll have no arguments over it. I'm well-travelled. I've been places and know things. Glasgow wins. You've got the best coffee shops nearby. You've got the best sandwich shops nearby. You've got the prettiest trees. In fact, Glasgow is home to the best tree in the UK, according to the National Tree Trust. It's an ash tree. It's cracking. It's massive. And again, sometimes when you see Glasgow on screen, it's either pretending to be somewhere else, like New York, or it's the grim gritty side of it. We filmed all across the city and all of it is gorgeous. It made me so happy to see how I see my city for other people and when we were filming, we met people from abroad who had come to Glasgow and were like “Dinosaur, we came here because of that show.” They came to our city because they believed us. How cool is that?
What sets Dinosaur apart from other shows?
Well, one, it's Scottish, and we're usually not allowed on the telly unless we're back in the olden days shouting Sassanach at people. It's got a cast of very funny people, some well-kent faces that you know and some faces that you don't know who I think you're going to know very well in the future. It's a story about people being people, and I think that even though that sounds like the normalest thing ever, I think that's a bit different now. Everybody's perfect but not in Dinosaur. We're all perfectly imperfectly, like Dinosaurs.
Interview/picture supplied by BBC
