The cast of BBC One’s buzzy new drama Two Weeks in August has pulled back the curtain on one of the show’s most talked-about sequences — and it turns out the tension viewers saw on screen was very real behind the camera too.
According to the Express.co.uk, the cast revealed the full extent of the challenges they faced while shooting at sea. The series, written by Sally4Ever creator Catherine Shepherd, follows a group of old friends whose sun-soaked reunion holiday quickly unravels after a stolen kiss sets off a chain of consequences. It airs Saturday evenings on BBC One and is also available in full on BBC iPlayer.
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Seasickness Pills and Choppy Seas
Episode two sends the fractured friend group out on a boat trip — an already-charged situation made even more chaotic by the real-life conditions on the water. Jessica Raine, who plays married character Zoe alongside Damien Molony (her on-screen husband Dan), didn’t hold back when describing how daunting the experience was.
“I do get seasick and I have this monologue on it — I was absolutely terrified of the day,” Raine, 44, admitted. “When it came to it, we all were, because it was choppy. We just had to get this done over two days. We were taking travel sickness pills … and some people didn’t make it.”
Molony, 42, added a lighter note, joking that there was no shortage of anti-nausea medication being passed around the deck. But he also confirmed the physical intensity of the experience, noting the vessel was rising and falling six to seven feet at times. “Even in those scenes, you can see the water level just bobbing up and down,” he said. “It felt intense.”
One Take, Open Ocean: Antonia Thomas’s Overboard Moment
Perhaps the most daring moment in the episode belongs to Antonia Thomas, 39, who plays Jess — a character who reaches her emotional limit mid-voyage and leaps overboard, swimming to shore.
Filming that stunt was far from simple. Thomas described being out in the middle of the open sea, in cold water, with a drone hovering overhead — and only one chance to nail the shot.
“There was quite a big deal made out of it,” she recalled. “The drone was up, everyone was nervous, and it was like: ‘Okay, Antonia, are you ready?’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, if I get this wrong!’ But it was alright in the end.”
Her co-star Nicholas Pinnock, who portrays Solomon, was among those watching anxiously from the boat. “We were all nervous for you,” he quipped.
A Drama That’s Already Gripping Viewers
Two Weeks in August has been making waves since it premiered, praised for being witty, relatable, and surprisingly tense for a holiday drama. The behind-the-scenes revelations only add another layer to a show that’s clearly not afraid to push its cast — or its cameras — out of their comfort zones.
New episodes air Saturday nights on BBC One, with the full series available now on BBC iPlayer.
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