Daisy Haggard received a lot of acclaim for her series Back to Life, which aired on BBC One and then Showtime. Haggard co-created and co-writes every episode of the show, where she plays a woman who attempts to reintegrate back into society after 18 years in prison. It's a very dark and sad comedy, but a funny and touching one nonetheless, and it was praised for its writing and performances (maintaining a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 26 reviews at the time of writing).
Back to Life Won't Be Back Soon
The show's six-episode second season aired in August 2021, and fans of the show and of the best British comedy shows, in general, have been speculating about a third season for a while now. Viewers searching for news of a third season continuously come into contact with vague and highly speculative articles quoting Haggard as "being open" to doing a third season, and roughly estimate that it would air in August 2022. The only problem with that is there is no third season in the pipeline; Haggard confirms it hasn't even been written, and an idea of how it would continue the story hasn't been decided on. She tells us:
If it's going to happen, I need to have precisely the right story. I feel like me and Laura [Solon, the co-creator], we love the world, but I'd want to know if we're going back in that we have exactly the right story, so we're still talking about that. But season two also completed in a really lovely way, so I'd only want to do a season three if I felt we could top it.
This means that, no, in contrast to what news outlets and media speculate, there is no season three in the works. If there is going to be one, there's likely going to be a long road to get there, from actually developing the storyline to writing it, filming it, and working on post-production. A third season is even less likely if one considers that it's contingent upon "topping" the way Back to Life concluded its second season; the beloved and acclaimed two seasons would be certainly hard to top.
For now, Haggard is busy working on projects she doesn't co-create (like starring opposite Martin Freeman in Breeders), which can be much more enjoyable and less stressful than having to steer the entire ship the way that she does with Back to Life. While she adored making that series, being able to act in someone else's project can be a relief.
Daisy Haggard is Happy Acting For Now
"It's completely different, actually," she says, comparing acting in Breeders to co-creating and running Back to Life. "It's really enjoyable in one way to do my job, focus on the scenes, and then I can go home. So I love it. I love it." Breeders and Back to Life are both very honest, authentic, dark, but funny shows, yet working on them is totally different, as she says.
I love them both in many different ways. Back to Life is like my baby. I created it and co-wrote it and produced it. So I'm in a scene, getting an email about whether I like the curtains, and then I'm in the edit right to the last day, so it's an amazing, immersive experience, and I adore it, it's deeply satisfying to see it through [...] But it's also really lovely to display a very well written part in Breeders that I didn't have to worry about if everyone else has got it. I can go home. I'm not waking up at night going, "oh my gosh, hang on, is that the right location?"
"I'm very lucky to be able to do both," Haggard says, and the audience is lucky as well. They just won't be seeing her do new episodes of Back to Life anytime soon.