Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett: There is “potential” for a third series

Doctor Foster series two ended with Gemma and Simon’s son going missing after an eventful episode where Bertie Carvel's wayward spouse was saved from suicide and the divorced couple continued to be at each other’s throats.

But where does that leave a possible series three?

With the action concluding as Suranne Jones’ Gemma broke the fourth wall and told her missing son Tom that he would always be welcome back, surely a third run involving a hunt for Tom is on the cards?

And what about more on Gemma and Simon’s toxic relationship? Will Simon attempt to get back his wife Kate and baby daughter Amelie?

Well, there's only one person who knows and that's writer Mike Bartlett, who spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com.

“You can see the ending," says Bartlett. "Tom’s gone. So there’s a question mark. In a way that is a question mark at the end. And I think it works as an end to this series and all the things that have been going on. Clearly there’s potential there. But obviously there would have to be lots of conversations.

"We need to talk – Suranne and I and lots of other people need to have lots of conversations and we’ll see."

Sounds promising.

But Bartlett is also a writer who is keen to stay in the present. He says he originally had a different ending, only formulating the disappearance of Tom as he was writing it.

“The ending of the show unfolded as I was writing it,” he reveals.

“In the plan he’s in the car at the end. They go back to her house and get a new kitchen and try to build a life. It was only when I went to write it that she goes back to the car and he’s not there. But that happened very organically from what he has been through I think.

“I was so involved in Gemma and Simon’s story, that's all I was thinking about when writing it. It sounds mad, this. But she comes out of the hotel and he’s not there. That’s the moment you look for as a writer, when the characters start telling you what they are doing rather than you telling them.”

What did you think of that Doctor Foster ending? Have your say right here

He adds: “I think it’s important with this show that you stay in the present. It’s not a show where you are seeding lots of things for some future thing. And that’s never been the point of it.

Part of the reason I don’t massively do a big masterplan for it is that no one in the show has that. And it’s all about the present moment and what it feels like to go through this.

"No one’s in control of things particularly in series two. There’s no big plan, it’s spiralling and they’re trying to keep control of it and that’s part of the energy of the show.”