Doctor Foster series 3 WON’T happen! Suranne Jones thinks her character Gemma ‘is done’

Doctor Foster star Suranne Jones has revealed that the highly-popular BBC drama will not return for a third season – despite fans being desperate to know what happens next.

Season two concluded in the autumn of 2017 and saw Suranne’s character – titular GP Gemma Foster –  learn that her damaged son Tom had run away, following his parents messy divorce.

Yet the fate of Tom, it seems, will never be known. 

Speaking to the latest edition of Radio Times, Suranne, 41, was asked whether the Doctor Foster chapter was closed for her, to which she replied: ‘Yes.’

She elaborated: ‘I haven’t said that before in interviews, as I tend to say: who knows? 

‘I loved it, I love [writer] Mike Bartlett, I love [the producers] Drama Republic.

‘Series one was amazing, series two, equally, peaked at nearly ten million viewers and pushed in crazy directions. But I think Gemma’s done.’

Suranne also answered questions about the second season of her Sky Atlantic show Save Me, and her answers may have in fact shed some light about why she is uninterested in following through with the story of her missing on-screen son Tom [played by Tom Taylor].

‘I’m in no rush to do anything about missing children, and I’ve read some scripts recently — television drama seems to be fascinated by them, but it doesn’t hold any interest for me at the minute.

‘I’m being careful about what I swap my family life for.’

Doctor Foster’s first season followed Gemma as she learnt her husband Simon [Bertie Carvel] was having an affair with one of her patients Kate [Jodie Comer].

The series climaxed with her confronting the pair, with season two picking up following Gemma and Simon’s divorce.

The storyline of the second series saw Gemma struggle with Simon and his now-wife Kate returning to live in the area, buying a lavish house, having a baby and seemingly flaunting their happiness in Gemma’s face – manipulating Tom in the process.

Ultimately, things unravelled for Simon, whose financial problems soon became clear, and he and Gemma’s hatred for one another led to Tom’s disappearance.

Fans of the show were desperate to know what happens next, with both the cast and writer of the series often teasing that the story could still continue.

Yet Suranne has seemingly dashed these hopes.

Just last month, however, it was announced that the BBC’s newly-commissioned series Life will be a spin-off of the show.

Creator and writer Mike Bartlett told The Sun that Life will ‘share a universe with Doctor Foster’ and that ‘all the lead characters may feature’ – giving fans hope that star Suranne could crop up in it.

The six-part drama follows the stories of the residents of a large house in Manchester, divided into four flats – one of which is occupied by a former-Doctor Foster character.

Anna Baker, played by Victoria Hamilton, was Gemma’s neighbour in Doctor Foster – and she will now appear in Life.

The character, however, has changed her name to Belle. She’s a pilates instructor now, whose life is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of her chaotic 15-year-old niece Maya [Erin Kellyman].

Mike said: ‘In the last series of Doctor Foster Anna split up with Neil and moved away. But I loved her as a character and suspected that was really the start of her story, rather than the end.

‘In Life we find her living alone, under a different name, in a new city. It’s one of four story strands that make up the series, the other three being new, completely different interconnected stories that explore the epic and extraordinary in our everyday lives.’

The series will also star Alison Steadman, Peter Davison and Adrian Lester.

Suranne appearing in Life is yet to be known, but she will definitely be back on screens in acclaimed series Gentleman Jack, which she starred in last year.

She plays Anne Lister who encounters a potentially blossoming and dangerous romance with another woman, which she records in a cryptic diary that no one can decode. 

Of what she can tease about the second run, Suranne was equally cagey.

‘Nothing for now,’ she said, but added: ‘I’ve been invited to executive produce the series, so we’re working on the scripts and putting it together now. We start filming in June and we’re really excited to start the next chapter.

‘Anyone who’s read the bit in Anne Lister’s diaries after the marriage will know what’s coming, but Sally [Wainwright] puts it together brilliantly — it feels vibrant, but it has real emotional depth.’

The new issue of Radio Times is out now.