''Fortitude'' is a British horror

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and c ...

television series created and written by Simon Donald. A 12-episode season was commissioned by

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HB ...

in 2013, and started airing on 29 January 2015. The series is set in the fictional Arctic Norwegian settlement of Fortitude. On 9 April 2015, Sky Atlantic recommissioned the show for a second season consisting of 10 episodes, which premiered on 26 January 2017. The third and final season premiered on 6 December 2018 and concluded on 27 December, consisting of 4 episodes.

Premise

On the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

island of Fortitude, things appear calm on the surface, but a string of violent and increasingly strange deaths slowly exact a toll on the quiet international community where almost everyone appears to be keeping at least one secret.

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

Tam Dean Burn Tam Dean Burn (born 1958 in Leith, Scotland) is a Scottish actor who has played a wide range of roles on stage and screen. On television this includes multiple roles on long-running detective series ''Taggart'', youth sci-fi thriller ''Life Forc ...

as Billy Pettigrew (series 1, 3)

Series 1

Chipo Chung Chipo Tariro Chung (born 17 August 1977) is a Zimbabwean actress and activist based in London. Early life and education Chung was born as a refugee in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her given name Chipo means "gift" in the Shona language. She spent h ...

as Trish Stoddart * Darwin Brokenbro as Liam Sutter * Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips as Carrie Morgan *

Michael Obiora Michael Obiora (born 8 October 1986) is a British actor, writer, director, and producer. Life and career Michael Obiora (pronounced OH-BEE-ORA) was born on 8 October 1986 in north-west London, England, to Nigerian- Igbo parents. As a six-year- ...

as Max Cordero * Emil Hoștină as Yuri Lubimov *

Jonjo O'Neill John Joseph "Jonjo" O'Neill (born 13 April 1952) is an Irish National Hunt racehorse trainer and former jockey. He is a native of Castletownroche, County Cork in Ireland. Based at the Jackdaws Castle training establishment in England. O'Neill ...

as Ciaran Donnelly * Leanne Best as Celia Donnelly *

Lorcan Cranitch Lorcan Cranitch (born 28 August 1959) is an Irish actor. Born in Dublin, Lorcan Cranitch became involved in drama while a student. In 1980 he moved to London, where he trained at RADA. Career His first major role on British television was as ...

as DI Bernard Littlejohn

Series 2

Jude Akuwudike Jude Akuwudike (born 1965) is a Nigerian actor. He has mostly worked in the United Kingdom, on screen and stage. He has appeared in productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. Early life Born in Nigeria, West ...

as Dr Adebimpe * Gershwyn Eustache Jnr as Tomak Bowzyk *

Rune Temte Rune Temte (born 29 September 1965) is a Norwegian actor best known for his roles in ''The Last Kingdom'' and ''Eddie the Eagle''. He portrayed Bron-Char in the Marvel Studios superhero film '' Captain Marvel'' in 2019. Early life and sporting ...

as Lars Ulvinaune * Eloise Smyth as Yeva Podnikov *

David Yip David Nicholas Yip (; born 4 June 1951) is a British actor of Chinese and English descent. He gained prominence through his lead role in the BBC series ''The Chinese Detective''. Early life Yip was born in Liverpool to a Chinese father, a seama ...

as Hong Mankyo *

Ralph Riach Ralph McKenzie Riach (26 January 1936 – 20 March 2022) was a Scottish actor from Elgin, Moray. Early years Riach was born on 26 January 1937 in Elgin, Scotland. He He was educated at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and he wor ...

as Ralfi Sigurdson * Joi Johannsson as Axel Fersen *

Steve Toussaint Steve Toussaint (born 22 March 1965) is a British actor and writer. He first gained prominence through his role in the ITV crime drama '' The Knock'' (1994–2000). As of 2022, he plays Corlys Velaryon in the HBO fantasy series ''House of th ...

as Avec Lamont * Mark Field as 'The Fiend' *

Jessica Henwick Jessica Yu-Li Henwick (born 30 August 1992) is a BAFTA nominated English actress, writer and director. She is known for her roles as Nymeria Sand in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2015–2017), X-wing pilot Jessika Pava in the film '' S ...

as Bianca Mankyo *Robert Sheehan as Vladek Klimov

Series 3

* Simon Donald as Neil McIndoe

Production

Conception

After talking to a parasitologist, writer Simon Donald based his parasite on ichneumon wasps, which lay their eggs in hosts.

Location

Fortitude is a fictional community located in

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...

Arctic Norway Arctic Norway ( no, Det arktiske Norge) comprises the northernmost parts of Norway that lie above the Arctic circle. Norway reaches from approximately 58°N to 81°N, so large parts lie north of the Arctic circle at 66°33′. In Norway, the name ...

. It is described as an international community, with inhabitants from many parts of the world (population of 713 inhabitants and 4 police officers). The series was filmed in both the UK and in

Reyðarfjörður Reyðarfjörður () is a town in Iceland. It has a population of 1,350 and is one of the most populated villages that constitute the municipality of Fjarðabyggð. History The town is at the bottom of the eponymous fjord, the largest on the east ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

Casting

American actor

Stanley Tucci Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...

appears in his first British television role as Detective Chief Inspector Morton from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

, who has flown to the peaceful close-knit community of Fortitude, as the local sheriff, played by

Richard Dormer Richard Dormer (born 11 November 1969) is an actor, playwright and screenwriter from Northern Ireland. He is best known for his roles as Beric Dondarrion in the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' and Dan Anderssen in Sky Atlantic's ...

, investigates a violent murder.

Christopher Eccleston Christopher Eccleston (; born 16 February 1964) is an English actor. A two-time BAFTA Award nominee, he is best known for his television and film work, which includes his role as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC sci-fi series '' ...

plays Charlie Stoddart, a British scientist who leads the arctic biology department at the Fortitude arctic research facility.

Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; born 19 October 1940) is an Irish-English actor. Regarded as one of Ireland and Britain's most distinguished actors, he is known for his work on stage and screen. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivi ...

portrays Henry Tyson, a wildlife photographer who is dying of cancer. '' The Killing'' star

Sofie Gråbøl Sofie Gråbøl (; born 30 July 1968) is a Danish actress. She has starred in a number of films, with her breakthrough role in the 1986 Danish film '' Early Spring'', directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen, playing the lead role in the film version of ...

plays Hildur Odegard, the governor of Fortitude, in her first UK television drama role.

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

Season 2 (2017)

Season 3 (2018)

Reception

The first season received positive reviews from critics. On Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the first season has an 86% rating with an average score rating of 7.4 out of 10 based on 28 critic reviews. The critical consensus reads "''Fortitude''s fine cast, deliberate pacing, and chilling setting provide the show with more than enough of the titular quality." On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 15 critic reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". The second season received generally positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an 88% approval rating with an average rating of 6.7 out of 10 based on 8 reviews.

International broadcast

In the United States and Canada, the series premiered on 29 January 2015 (the same date as the UK) on

Pivot Pivot may refer to: *Pivot, the point of rotation in a lever system *More generally, the center point of any rotational system *Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body *Pivot turn, a dance move Companies *Incitec Pivot, an Austra ...

and Super Channel, respectively. It was also dubbed in

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken an ...

and aired by Manoto. The series debuted in Australia on 15 February 2015 on ABC.

Ale Kino+ Ale Kino+ is a Polish language, Polish television channel owned and operated by Groupe Canal+, Canal+. It is available on the networks of cable television and the digital platform Cyfra+ (now Platforma Canal+, nc+) since 16 April 1999. It broa ...

HD started showing series 3 on 10 February 2019 dubbed in Polish, with original English audio also available.

Censorship

When FX broadcast the series in Indonesia on 19 February 2017, the violent scenes led to the banning of the channel by Indonesian authorities from 10 to 14 April 2017.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortitude (Tv Series) 2015 British television series debuts 2018 British television series endings 2010s British drama television series 2010s British horror television series 2010s British mystery television series British horror fiction television series English-language television shows Sky Atlantic original programming Svalbard in fiction Television series by Banijay Television series by Tiger Aspect Productions Television shows set in the United Kingdom Television shows set in the Arctic Television shows set in Norway