I'm not sure why Benjamin Sutherland could not be included in this season. Perhaps, it was a scheduling conflict with his other show. Either way, the casting change could have been more agreeable had they chosen another actor of the same age. Not that Linus Roache did a bad job but, as with other depictions of the Tunstall-Billy relationship, they played up the Father Figure angle, not the true Mentor aspect. A mentor can be anyone, at any age (something very evident in my years of military service), and the younger Tunstall would have been a more relatable mentor to Billy, teaching him that good and decent business practices and values can be adopted at an early age.
Plus, it's more historically accurate, as Tunstall was only 24 when he was murdered.
Plus, it's more historically accurate, as Tunstall was only 24 when he was murdered.
