Marcella season 3 cast: who stars in the third series of ITV's crime drama with Anna Friel and Amanda Burton?

The third series is available to stream in its entirety right now – but who stars in it?
Anna Friel as Marcella Backland (Photo: ©ITV/Buccaneer Media)Anna Friel as Marcella Backland (Photo: ©ITV/Buccaneer Media)
Anna Friel as Marcella Backland (Photo: ©ITV/Buccaneer Media)

She’s been off our screens for three years, but Marcella is back with a bang, and it’s all change for the troubled character too.

“I can’t wait for everyone to see it,” says Anna Friel, who returns once again to play the titular character.

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“Even if you haven’t watched the first two seasons, this one can be watched as a standalone. People across the world have watched season three and enjoyed it so much that they then went back and watched one and two. It’s created a different momentum.

(Photo: ©ITV/Buccaneer Media)(Photo: ©ITV/Buccaneer Media)
(Photo: ©ITV/Buccaneer Media)
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Here is everything you need to know about it.

What happens in series three?

The last time we saw Marcella on our screens, she was in turmoil after discovering she had killed her own daughter. Now Marcella’s going undercover having adopted a new persona, that of dodgy Manchester cop Keira Devlin.

She’s relocated to Northern Ireland to explore her family’s roots, and Marcella completely immerses herself in Keira’s personality, to the extent that the line between where Marcella stops and Keira starts begins to be blurred.

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While her colleagues are concerned about the impact on her mental health, she seems to regard it as a bonus, but as she infiltrates the notorious Maguire crime family, questions begin to be raised about just how convincingly she has left her true identity behind.

Who stars in it?

Joining the cast is Amanda Burton as crime boss matriarch Katherine Maguire.

Burton is no stranger to the crime drama genre having starred in Silent Witness, The Helen West Casebook and The Commander, and he and Friel both made their names on much-missed Channel 4 soap Brookside (though Burton had left by the time Friel arrived).

Elsewhere, the series welcomes an array of new cast members.

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They include Aaron McCusker (Bohemian Rhapsody, Fortitude, Shameless) as Maguire’s son, Finn; whilst Hugo Speer (The Musketeers, Britannia, The Full Monty), who made a brief appearance in the final scenes of series two, reprises his role as Frank Young, Marcella’s undercover handle.

Kelly Gough (The Fall, Broadchurch) also joins the cast, taking the role of Stacey, Katherine’s daughter; Martin McCann (Death & Nightingales, The Frankenstein Chronicles) plays Stacey’s husband, with Eugene O’Hare (The Fall, Death & Nightingales) as local police officer Eddie.

Michael Colgan (X Company, My Mother and Other Strangers) plays Rory Maguire, whilst Paul Kennedy (Death & Nightingales, No Offence) plays Lawrence, Marcella’s initial contact within the crime family, and Glen Wallace (River City, The Secret) is past acquaintance, Matt.

When can I watch it?

In the UK we’re a little late to the party – the run has already been shown overseas – but the first two episodes of Marcella series three aired on ITV on Tuesday 26 January.

The entire series dropped on the ITV Hub and BritBox soon after, and is available to stream now,

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