Gangs of London star Orli Shuka says he held his breath for four minutes in scene

Gangs of London star Orli Shuka has revealed he held his breath for four minutes for a scene in the highly anticipated new series, which launched earlier this week.

The brutal first instalment followed the Wallace family as they dealt with the death of their patriarch Finn (Colm Meaney), formerly the head of London's most powerful crime group, whose assassination sent shockwaves through the city as son Sean (Joe Cole) took over.

Round two picks things up one year after Sean’s death, with the surviving Wallaces scattered and the Dumanis broken and estranged, while Elliot is being forced to work for the investors.

Orli Shuka joins the cast as Luan, the head of the Albanian mafia, whose role involved plenty of stunt work – something he was keen to do himself.

Sky

Speaking to the Metro, he explained that director Corin Hardy had asked before filming if he would be able to hold his breath for four minutes.

Shuka recalled: “So I said I’m gonna try, you know?”

The actor prepped with the stunt team for a month for the shoot, adding: “It was pretty tough and pretty hard, especially the water scene [because the lack of time we had to film it].

“The shoot lasted four days and three days we spent on the kitchen fight, while we had just half a day for the pool scene.

“We had four hours to shoot the pool scene and I remember I had a headache afterward because of holding my breath.”

Speaking to LADbible recently, Shuka also promised plenty of gore for the new series, telling us: “This is a violent show, basically we got a lot of blood, blood, blood everywhere.

“We don’t have unicorns, we don’t have rainbows, it’s not a fairytale. We are still in gangster territory.”

Sky

His comments echoed those of co-star Michelle Fairley, who plays Marian Wallace, who said the second season boasted violence ‘on steroids’.

And it seems like the cast and crew’s hard work has paid off, as the show is now being hailed the ‘best ever’ after its season two premiere.

One fan tweeted: “Gangs of London is easily the best thing out right now... Top tier.”

Someone else said: “Gangs of London season 2???? Best British TV show running is back.”

A third wrote: “Gangs of London has to be the best show ever made.”

Another added: “I promise you this is probably the best TV I’ve watched all year. I am BREATHLESS from screaming for 90 minutes."

Watch Gangs of London season 2 now on Sky Atlantic and NOW.