There’s a vast number of detective dramas available online. But, the BBC series’ Strike’ has its own charisma. The series has been thrilling us season by season. The British show has five seasons. Its latest episode aired on 19th Dec 2022. The crime drama is based on J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran novel series. Rowling wrote these novels with a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.
Actor Tom Burke has played the role of a private detective, Cormoran Strike. The investigator takes up complicated cases and solves them with his partner Robin Ellacott. However, he wasn’t a detective since the beginning. He has served as an army officer and lost his left leg in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. Since then, he has had to rely on his prosthetic leg.
Tom Burke pulled up the role so seamlessly that it left the viewers baffled. ‘Is tom really an amputee?’ ‘Did Tom lose his leg for real?’ Queries like these started surpassing the internet. Not only the viewers but his co-stars, too, got confused. Holliday Grainger (Robin Ellacott) told RadioTimes that Tom had embraced the character in a way that she sometimes forgets that he has two legs. The actor exclaimed that she gets brainwashed and tries to help him in between the scenes as though he is disabled.
‘Strike’ is indeed an example of great filmmaking. But how the creators filmed the scenes so flawlessly?
Cormoran’s Missing Leg Scenes – How Were They Filmed?
The series director, Michael Keillor, unveiled the secret of missing leg scenes. Michael worked on the first season, The Cuckoo’s calling. It showed Cormoran’s character as precisely as mentioned in the novel, even though the actor did not have any such disability.
Keillor took inspiration from the movie ‘Rust & Bone.’ The movie shows Marion Cotillard losing both her legs in an accident. Keillor studied the use of green screen technology for this scene and then went ahead to use trick photography.
He also said that he doesn’t want to disclose everything as every director has a different way of doing things. He summed up by saying that we removed the leg digitally and then replaced the stump. But do you think it was all technology?
Strike Missing Leg Scenes- The Secret Revealed
The team also had a body double of Tom having the same injury as the detective. The ‘too-close shots’ were filmed with the body double. The director opened up and said that they focused on keeping a balance. They didn’t want to show too much of leg scenes. But, at the same time, they didn’t want to shy away from it as it is pretty common to see soldiers having these kinds of difficulties.
Tom Burke’s effort was no less. Even when the leg scenes were not shot, he used to walk like a person with an amputated leg. This created the perfect impression for the audience. For Tom, it was a mix of imitation and technology.
Burke’s had the utmost dedication to show Cormoran Strike the right way. He used to sit up with the movement director Toby Sedgwick. He also talked to Barney Gillespie, who had the same ailment as the detective. The actor used to ask all questions related to Coromoran’s condition.
The third season of the series, Career of Evil, had a scene where the detective was running on his prosthetic limbs. Tom imagined the pain the character must be experiencing and depicted his discomfort skilfully.
Also Read: How to Watch Strike Season 5 Episodes? Streaming Guide
Strike- Lethal White director Sue Tally realized that it has got easier to shoot the missing leg scenes. He credited the technology and Tom’s body double Mark for the same.
Strike Season 6 – When to Expect the Next Season?
The BBC series is one of the most popular crime dramas. Its first two seasons hit the floors in 2017. After the third part in 2018, it took two years to bring the fourth season. The fifth season was also released after two years in mid-December 2022.
The global pandemic and the packed-up schedules of the actors delayed the TV thriller. But, it did not affect the popularity of the show. The fandom for Strike is unmatchable.
However, there is no official announcement from BBC for another season. But there’s also good news. J.K. Rowling published the sixth novel of the Strike series in August 2022. So, if the TV version follows the same plot, we can have another season in 2023.
We might also see a romance brimming between the lead characters. At the end of the fifth season of Troubled Blood, the things between the two were left on an interesting note. It will be amazing to watch how the business partners take it up in the next season.
