As Bookish season 2 continues to air weekly, and with all episodes available to stream now, Mark Gatiss has teased some of his hopes for the future of the show - and what fans could expect in future seasons.
Speaking exclusively with Radio Times, Gatiss said that "we'd love to do some more," and that he's got "a lot of ideas", even if they're "not necessarily for this show".
He laughed, and said: "No, I have a lot of ideas. Ian [Hallard, co-writer and Gatiss's husband] always laughs, but I always say that, and he goes, ‘What are they?’ And I go, ‘I don't mean for Bookish, I just mean lots of ideas!’
"No, I do have some thoughts where we'd go. Series two is still 1946, it's a very long year, but I didn't want to kind of race through it. But there's a lot of great big things happen in the late '40s – the great freeze of 1947, the worst winter of the 20th century, the royal wedding, the London Olympics in 48, that's a bit irresistible.
"And I do have an idea for a sort of sci-fi one – not aliens, but a sort of Quatermassy setting."
The Quatermass Experiment was the first in a series of sci-fi TV serials written by Nigel Kneale, with the first airing in 1953. It was set in the then-near future and focussed on a British space programme, which was disrupted by the presence of aliens.
When asked whether Gatiss intended for future seasons to feature more time jumps, so as to include all of the events he referenced, the writer and actor said: "No, no, we’d just keep going. If we carry on, I don't want to get to the '50s too soon, because the whole point really was this post-war setting is very under-examined, and I think we can keep going, just sort of spread the time a bit more.
"Because there's a lot of stuff there, and I think somehow or other, once you get into the '50s, it's a different world. If we get that far, that could be quite interesting to explore, but at the moment I think there's enough going on there if we are spared, as they say."
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Thankfully, the series has already been "spared", with a two-part Christmas special set to arrive later this year, followed by a third season in 2027.
Production on season 3 will begin later this year, with storylines and guest stars set to be revealed in the coming months.
Bookish season 2 airs weekly on Wednesdays on U&Alibi. The series is available to stream in full on demand on Sky, Virgin, BT and TalkTalk.
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