Strike's Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger on future: 'It feels worthwhile playing it through to the end'

The pair have filmed six seasons since 2017, playing the one-legged war veteran Strike and his partner in crime Robin in the adaptations of the books by Robert Galbraith, otherwise known as JK Rowling.

Both actors now slip seamlessly into their roles as soon as they are on set together, but admit the lines have recently become blurred between fiction and reality. "I did forget where Strike ended and Tom began," Grainger says. "In between takes I would often put my arm out to Tom to help him because I got sucked in by his acting, then I remembered he has two legs in real life and doesn’t need a hand."

Burke adds with a laugh, "When I was watching Holly in her other drama The Capture, whenever she was on her phone sending a text, I instinctively reached for my phone."

The actors say coming back to Strike after filming other projects is akin to that cosy familiarity of getting your pencil case out for school after the summer holidays. For Burke, all he needs to do now to get into character is slip on the famous coat and remember how to do Strike’s accent: London with a twang of Cornwall. He says he "used to have to underline words in the script and work quite hard on it, but now it comes back easily, which is a relief.

"As for the coat, I don’t know where it is, but it should be in a velvet-lined box, shouldn’t it? People do say I should wear it in real life and it is a great coat but if you saw me walking around in it, you’d think I’ve gone mad."

Grainger adds, "I have done that before. I kept one of Robin’s coats, and came out of a shop wearing it and someone did a double take. It was a mistake."

The Ink Black Heart begins with Strike and Robin having dinner together and, for those who may not have read the 2022 book of the same name, it seems possible that they will finally get together after years of bubbling romantic tension.

Yet – with apologies for the spoiler – the date frustratingly ends without the much-longed-for kiss we are all hoping for, and the pair go back to their working relationship, albeit with the lingering gazes and pregnant pauses in conversation we have grown accustomed to.

Burke explains, "They’re having dinner and their guard is down because they’re not in the middle of a case, and they’re both a bit tipsy as well. Something nearly happens; it’s a spectacular moment of mistiming. Consequently, they retreat from it."

Why on earth can’t they both see how much they feel for each other? I ask almost pleadingly. Grainger explains, "Their relationship is so complicated and there’s a real fear of stepping over the line and there being a sense of no return. It’s written so well in the book, the breakdown of thoughts Robin has, of not knowing if he’s going to regret it in the morning, if he’s drunk a bit too much, or if this is not the right thing for him, and what it would mean for their business. It’s only afterwards that she’s like, ‘Oh, that could have been something, maybe I was overthinking it’.

"That moment makes her realise how she feels towards him properly for the first time, I think. But in that moment there’s also fear of rejection, and of losing what they have, which is friendship. Robin has very few close friends, which is a big element."

And how does Strike feel about it all? Burke says, "It’s that moment that can happen sometimes where the lights go down and the candles are lit and the whole world feels very different. And it’s like, why the hell not? But there’s a fear of messing it up. That’s a big thing that pulls you into the show, because I think people have friendships like this a lot, where it’s on a precipice of becoming something else and you think, let’s keep it in the sweet spot, because this could all go horribly wrong."

There’s a vast number of online forums with fans discussing whether or not Strike and Robin should or could ever get together, and the actors admit they are asked the question all the time. Burke says with a grin, "People always ask with a certain squirming relish. They seem to enjoy the agony of it. They get very impatient about it, but they enjoy that. I don’t think they really want to know."

The fact is, until Rowling writes it into her books, it will never happen on screen. But is it something the actors would like to see happen in the future? Would it ruin the will-they-won’t-they "agony" if Strike and Robin did become a couple, or could it simply add an extra delicious layer to the series?

Burke compares it to the Richard Linklater trilogy of films starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy that begins with a teasingly slow burner of a romance in the 1995 film Before Sunrise and ends with Before Midnight, released two decades later, with the couple finally together. "There’s nothing smug about it when they’re finally together," he explains, "and it’s because they’re two such brilliant characters. I don’t think Strike and Robin would ever be a smug couple, so in that sense I can imagine a world in which it would still be an interesting thing to watch."

Grainger adds, "I would certainly be interested to see it or read it, but I don’t know if that’s what people want to read and watch. Maybe they would."

Despite Strike and Robin’s closeness, though, they are very different people. Wouldn’t the polished Robin get fed up with Strike’s messy ways? He drinks and smokes, and his desk is always cluttered. "There’s a bit of that," Burke protests defensively. "But he does make his bed every morning. He’s been in the military. He can be very meticulous when he has to be."

Potential romance aside, Strike and Robin still have work to do, and in The Ink Black Heart, Robin is approached by an artist who fears for her life after being cyber-stalked. She tells the woman she’s too busy to take on the case but is then devastated when she is murdered shortly afterward and decides to take on the case posthumously and delve into the dark world of social media – something the actors had to learn about as neither use it in their personal lives.

"I don’t read anything on social media," Grainger says, "which now saying it out loud sounds quite silly and ignorant, but it works for me. I did join Instagram to follow a kebab truck in Devon and find out where they were going to be each week, because they’re really good. But now they have a set place, so I don’t need it!"

Similarly, Burke is not online and is keen to point out that the imposter on social media calling himself "Tom Burke" and asking for money is not him. "I did go down a black hole researching because I’m usually quite head in sand and I was thinking, what is all this stuff? I’ve never liked the idea of being ‘followed’, and that was always the wording on Twitter, wasn’t it?

"And if you’re having a row in real life with someone you love, you might see something in each other’s eyes and suddenly all the ways you might win the argument don’t matter at all because there’s something deeper there. We do so much of our communication non-verbally and that’s not possible with words on a screen, so I’m very suspicious of it."

The TV series is yet to catch up with the books, with seventh novel The Running Grave published last year, and the eighth, The Hallmarked Man, expected next year. Rowling has said she’d like to write at least 10. Luckily, both seem dedicated to filming for as long as the books keep coming. Grainger has already read The Running Grave and says she loves finding out where Rowling (also executive producer) is taking the story next.

"She comes on set sometimes," reveals Burke, "and will occasionally spill something like, 'There’ll be another scene in this place that’s quite important', which is always intriguing. It’s a really precious job for me, it’s woven itself into my life in a very particular way. Holliday and I have talked about it a lot, and we feel like the currency of it has so much to do with the slow burn arc of it, not the individual stories, and that’s why it feels so worthwhile playing it through to the end."

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Strike seasons 1-5 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Season 6 will begin airing from Monday 16th December.

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