Stella Gibson

Stella Gibson
The Fall character
Gillian Anderson as DSI Stella Gibson
First appearance	"Dark Descent"
Last appearance	"Their Solitary Way"
Created by	Allan Cubitt
Portrayed by	Gillian Anderson
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Metropolitan Police Officer Metropolitan Police
Title	Detective Superintendent
Nationality	English

DSI Stella Gibson is the main character in the a British (BBC Two) and Irish (RTÉ One) crime drama television series The Fall, which is filmed and set in Northern Ireland. She is portrayed by Gillian Anderson.

Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson is an English Metropolitan Police officer assigned to the Police Service of Northern Ireland on a 28-day review in the city of Belfast who later accepts a semi-permanent secondment to supervise Operation Musicman. Gibson is a senior investigating officer tasked with the reviewing of investigations, she's an incredibly capable officer, and is extremely comfortable with her own sexuality.

With her investigation stalled, Gibson is forced to get results under the threat of a new 28-day review into Operation Musicman. As Stella's personal past comes back to haunt her, her professional present becomes further tangled in it.

Creator-writer Allan Cubitt was inspired by guitar manufacturing companies when naming many of his characters. Both Stella and Gibson are brands of guitar. Cubitt explained: "I gave Stella Gibson a double guitar name as she's my central character. As a writer sometimes it's incredibly important that you write about things that interest you and you just know when names are right. I love music and I love guitars and have been playing them for years. In fact, my first ever guitar was a Gibson."

Cubitt started writing the script back in 2010 with Anderson in mind. Cubitt stated: "I always thought that Gillian would be the best person to play the part. I'd written three episodes of Season 1, and we approached Gillian and talked it through. And I was in the incredibly gratifying position of her saying that she was interested in doing it. It's not very often that you get your first choice of actor, so that sets the project off in a really good way." Cubitt added: "There's such an intelligence going on in Gillian's acting, I think, your eye is drawn to her. Gibson has that quality because Gillian's playing her, but I always wanted Stella to have that sort of star quality, that kind of charisma that makes people want to do their best work for her, which, I think again, is just an aspect of her as a leader. She inspires in people the desire to please her in some kind of way."