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THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT

DARKLY COMIC THRILLER

Buckle up for series two of The Flight Attendant when it lands later this month – it promises to be another turbulent trip for air stewardess Cassie (Kaley Cuoco), who barely survived the first season of this darkly comic thriller that began with the one-night stand from hell.

Functioning alcoholic Cassie chatted up handsome first-class passenger Alex Sokolov (Game Of Thrones’s Michiel Huisman) on a flight to Bangkok and ended up in his hotel room for a booze-fuelled overnight fling, only to wake up covered in his blood. He’d had his throat slit and she couldn’t remember a thing about it.

It started off like a stylish homage to Hitchcock – glamorous blonde lands in living nightmare after fateful meeting with a stranger – then travelled round the world at warp-speed as Cassie tried to figure out what had happened to Alex while evading arrest by the FBI for his murder. The mystery plotline of ‘Who Killed Alex?’ provided the broad story arc, but it was deftly intertwined with comedy moments, mostly drunken, and intimate revelations about Cassie’s traumatic childhood.

What set the show apart was that many pivotal scenes occurred inside Cassie’s head and were conveyed to viewers via conversations in the hotel room with Alex – seemingly alive but his neck bearing the gaping wound that killed him. He became Cassie’s confidante, conscience, therapist and fellow sleuth, and the surreal scenes allowed us to observe the jumble of thoughts plaguing Cassie’s booze-addled brain.

Cuoco positively thrums with febrile intensity in the role of Cassie – quirky, charming and vulnerable, all while downing dozens of vodka shots a day. The role allowed her to display acting skills that playing Penny in nearly 300 episodes of The Big Bang Theory never needed, and she was thrilled when The Flight Attendant landed her an Emmy nomination (the show was nominated for nine).

‘I’d been on The Big Bang Theory for years and needed to think what the next path was going to be,’ said Cuoco, who had bought the rights to the original The Flight Attendant novel by Chris Bohjalian and executive produced the show. ‘I think it’s really important for us, as women, to start putting our own stamp on things and having our own voice.’ Filming took place in New York, Rome and Thailand, and Cuoco says her favourite moment of the whole shoot came while filming a scene in the rooftop pool of a Bangkok hotel gazing into Michiel’s eyes as the clock struck midnight and her 34th birthday dawned. The crew brought out a cake to celebrate.

Series two – which will again feature Girls’ Zosia Mamet and Once Upon A Time’s Deniz Akdeniz as Cassie’s pals

Ani and Max – promises to be another frenetic adventure for chaos-magnet Cassie. Now sober, living in LA and dating artist Marco (Santiago Cabrera), she’s also secretly working part-time for the CIA, carrying out surveillance on people in between flights. ‘She’s trying to keep secrets and she’s terrible at it,’ says Cuoco.

When the target Cassie’s following is assassinated by a woman who looks just like her, she embarks on another adventure as she tries to figure out who’s trying to frame her, testing her sobriety to the limit.

It’s time to fasten that seatbelt!

Season two of The Flight Attendant will be released in its entirety on Sky Max and NOW on Thursday.

Cuoco is quirky and vulnerable in the role – all while downing dozens of vodka shots a day