Yahoo Finance All the best TV dramas coming this spring
Here's a look at some of the nail-biting series set to launch on the BBC, ITV and Sky later this year, from adaptations of popular novels to brand-new stories, featuring stellar acting talent...
DI Ray
Parminder Nagra will lead ITV's crime drama DI Ray, executive produced by Jed Mercurio, and written by Line of Duty actress and screenwriter Maya Sondhi.
Set in Birmingham, DI Ray introduces us to Leicester-born Rachita Ray, a police officer who takes on a case that forces her to confront a lifelong personal conflict between her British identity and her South Asian heritage.
The four-parter follows our eponymous detective as she investigates a murder case and exposes racism in the workplace.
On taking the role of Rachita Ray, Parminder Nagra, whose international acting credits include Bend it Like Beckham, ER, Fortitude, and Intergalactic, commented: "I am so looking forward to getting back to the UK after such a challenging time globally to be part of this exciting new project. Written by Maya Sondhi and exec produced by the force that is Jed Mercurio, we are being helmed by an amazing team to bring something special to our story telling landscape."
DI Ray will air on ITV.
The Staircase
Colin Firth and Toni Collette star in HBO and Sky Atlantic's true crime drama The Staircase, based on the story of convicted murderer and author Michael Peterson.
The series - which also stars Sophie Turner - will centre on Michael (played by Firth) and his second wife, Kathleen Peterson (played by Collette), who he claimed to have found lying at the bottom of a staircase in their North Carolina home.
Netflix and BBC's Storyville chronicled the case from 2001 to 2017 in their documentary also called The Staircase. In the new trailer, Firth's Michael can be seen announcing: "It's my life on the line and I want to tell my story. And I promise you, when we are on the other side of this, things will be better. To la familia, and to the ones we miss."
The cast also includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tim Guinee, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Vincent Vermignon, Odessa Young and Parker Posey.
The Staircase will arrive on NOW TV and Sky Atlantic soon.
The Tower
Game of Thrones and Gentleman Jack star Gemma Whelan will lead crime thriller The Tower, based on the first in Kate London’s Metropolitan series of novels Post Mortem.
Whelan will play Sergeant Sarah Collins, while Tahirah Sharif takes on sidekick cop Lizzie Griffiths. Emmett J. Scanlan takes the role of uniformed police inspector Kieran Shaw, and Jimmy Akingbola is playing DC Steve Bradshaw.
ITV's teaser synopsis reads: "In The Tower's breath-taking opening sequence, a veteran beat cop and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in south-east London. Left alive on the roof are a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours, Lizzie has disappeared, and Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins is charged with leading the investigation.
"The antagonistic relationship between the experienced Sergeant Sarah Collins and the novice cop Lizzie Griffiths is at the heart of London’s novels and The Tower. What happened on the roof of the tower is the mystery that Sarah must uncover. When it’s finally revealed, the truth will cast its shadow over Sarah and Lizzie’s relationship and their lives."
The Tower will arrive on ITV later this year.
Holding
Kathy Burke is adapting Graham Norton's best-selling novel of the same title Holding, which follows a lethargic local police officer facing his first ever murder case when the body of a local legend is discovered.
Derry Girls star Siobhan McSweeney, Academy award winning actress Brenda Fricker and Game of Thrones star Conleth Hill will lead the four-part series set in the insular fictional village of Duneen, West Cork, on the edge of Ireland.
The cast also includes Clinton Liberty (Normal People), Amy Conroy (The South Westerlies), Olwen Fouéré (Beast), Eleanor Tiernan (Bridget and Eamon), Gary Shelford (Belgravia), Lochlann Ó’Meárain (Smother), Sky Yang (Halo), Demi Issac Oviawe (The Young Offenders), Norma Sheahan (Bridget and Eamon), and Anne Kent (Fair City).
Holding will arrive on ITV later this year.
Trigger Point
Line of Duty's Vicky McClure plays a bomb disposal operative in ITV's high-octane thriller Trigger Point.
Adrian Lester stars as Joel Nutkins, who is working alongside McClure's Lana Washington as part of the Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad. Both are ex-military and extremely close, having served together in Afghanistan.
ITV's synopsis adds: "The series turns the spotlight on counter terrorism policing and the extraordinary work of the Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad. When a terrorist campaign threatens the capital over the summer, the Expos are at the forefront of urgent efforts to find out who is behind the bombings before fatalities escalate….."
Trigger Point airs on ITV later this year.
Ipcress File
The Ipcress File, the first in the Harry Palmer spy thriller series, is being adapted into a six part television series for ITV.
Peaky Blinders star Joe Cole takes on the iconic role of Harry Palmer alongside Bohemian Rhapsody's Lucy Boynton as Jean, and BAFTA award winning actor Tom Hollander (The Night Manager, Birdbox) as Dalby.
Joining the cast tare Ashley Thomas (NYPD Blue, Top Boy, Salvation) as Maddox, Joshua James as Chico (Industry, Life, Absentia), David Dencik (McMafia, Face to Face, Chernobyl) as Colonel Stok and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Dublin Murders, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War) as Cathcart.
The Ipcress File is author Len Deighton's first spy novel introducing the British spy Harry Palmer, set in Berlin and London during the 1960s.
The series will air on ITV later this year.
Ridley Road
BBC One's Ridley Road is a political thriller from writer Sarah Solemani, adapted from Jo Bloom's critically-acclaimed novel of the same title.
The series is set against the backdrop of a swinging sixties London we haven’t seen: an East End world where far right fascism is on the rise. Newcomer Aggi O’Casey plays Vivien, a young Jewish woman who follows her lover into danger and finds herself going undercover within a Neo-Nazi organisation in London in the 1960s.
Actress and writer Solemani told the BBC: "Britain’s relationship with fascism is closer and more alive than we like to think. Luckily, so is our rich heritage of fighting it. Jo Bloom’s gripping book revealed a darker side of sixties London and the staggering contribution the Jewish community made in the battle against racism. I am thrilled to be working with Red [Production Company] and the BBC to bring this little-known slice of British history to the screen."
Ridley Road will air on BBC One later this year.
The Long Call
Our Girl's Ben Aldridge will star in the leading role as DI Matthew Venn in ITV’s new adaptation The Long Call.
The evocative four-part event drama is inspired by the best-selling novel of the same title from award-winning writer Ann Cleeves, creator of Vera and Shetland series. Des and Baptiste screenwriter, Kelly Jones, will write all four episodes in her first solo series.
The series follows the intriguing and flawed protagonist, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn, who has returned to live in a small community in North Devon with his husband, Jonathan. It’s a place Matthew walked away from 20 years ago, after being rejected by his family.
ITV's synopsis reads: "We first meet the reserved, but intense Matthew Venn outside the local church as his father's funeral takes place. Sadly, the day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.
"Now he's back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major murder. A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew'snew home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, has been stabbed to death."
Aldridge will be joined by Juliet Stevenson playing Matthew Venn’s mother, Dorothy and Martin Shaw as the spiritual Brethren leader Dennis.
Anita Dobson, Neil Morrissey, Pearl Mackie, Dylan Edwards, Sarah Gordy, Amit Shah and Alan Williams. Anita Dobson, Neil Morrissey, Pearl Mackie, Dylan Edwards, Sarah Gordy, Amit Shah and Alan Williams also add their talents to the illustrious cast.
Death Comes as the End
Vanity Fair screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes is adapting Agatha Christie's novel set in Ancient Egypt in the early 20th Century and about a young woman who suspects her priest father may be tied up in the death of a concubine.
The cast has yet to be announced.
Death Comes as the End will air on BBC One later this year.
Vigil
Suranne Jones plays DCI Amy Silver in BBC One's upcoming thriller which follows the mysterious disappearance of a Scottish fishing trawler and a death on-board a Trident nuclear submarine bringing the police into conflict with the Navy and British security services.
DCI Amy leads an investigation on land and at sea into a conspiracy that threatens the very heart of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
The cast also includes Anjli Mohindra, Martin Compston, Paterson Joseph, Connor Swindells, Adam James, and Gary Lewis.
Vigil is written and created by Bafta-nominated writer Tom Edge (Judy, The Crown, Strike) with episodes by Ed Macdonald (The End Of The F***ing World) and Chandni Lakhani (Dublin Murders).
Vigil will launch on BBC One later this year.
Chloe
Sex Education [above pictured] director Alice Seabright is the creator, writer and director of BBC One's six-part thriller exploring obsession, identity, grief, and truth.
BBC's synopsis reads: "Becky thinks Chloe has the perfect life. Years after Chloe abandoned her when they were teenagers, Becky still obsessively watches Chloe’s life through her picture-perfect social media. But when Chloe dies suddenly, Becky’s need to find out how and why leads her to assume a new identity and infiltrate the enviable lives of Chloe’s closest friends.
"Who was Chloe? What happened to her? And why does Becky think Chloe was trying to send her a message before she died? Through her alter-ego Sasha, Becky becomes a powerful, transgressive heroine, trapped in a dangerous web of lies, only some of which are her own."
Chloe will air on BBC One later this year.
Stay Close
Harlan Coban recently signed a five-year deal with Netflix to adapt 14 of his crime thriller novels, and following The Stranger (which proceeded compelling drama Safe) Stay Close is next up for adaptation. The Stranger's Richard Armitage will lead, playing one of three characters whose dark secrets threaten to destroy their lives.
The cast also includes Cush Jumbo and James Nesbitt.
Stay Close will launch on Netflix later this year.
Hollington Drive
Blood screenwriter Sophie Petzal is behind ITV's four-part evocative thriller, which follows two grown-up sisters who become embroiled in a tense mystery when their children are involved in the disappearance of a 10-year-old local boy.
Line of Duty's Anna Maxwell Martin plays Theresa, while Rachael Stirling plays her older head teacher sibling, Helen. Theresa's partner Fraser will be played by Rhashan Stone (Finding Alice) and Helen’s partner, David, by Peter McDonald (Dublin Murders).
The cast also includes Peter McDonald, Ken Nwosu, Jonas Armstrong and Jodie McNee.
TV's synopsis reveals that the series opens on a warm, balmy evening, barbecue sizzling on the patio, the perfect family setting. The atmosphere is relaxed, as the family lounge in Theresa and her partner Fraser's perfectly manicured garden. Apart from Fraser's brother Eddie winding everyone up, there’s hardly a hint of tension, but this is the calm before storm.
When Theresa’s ten-year-old son, Ben, asks to play in the nearby park with his cousin Eva, the adults begin to niggle, adding to Theresa's fears of foreboding and growing feelings of anxiety.
Theresa finds the children on the edge of a woodland area and they appear to be fighting. Immediately her instincts tell her something terrible has happened. This is all too realised when later that evening distraught neighbour, Jean, calls on the family. Her ten-year-old son Alex has gone missing...
Hollington Drive will launch on ITV later this year.
Manhunt II: The Night Stalker (ITV)
Martin Clunes returns as former London Metropolitan Police detective, DCI Colin Sutton in ITV's Manhunt II: The Night Stalker.
The four part drama tells the real life story of the police pursuit of a notorious serial rapist, whose 17 year reign of terror left thousands of elderly people in south east London living in fear. It is based on the diaries of Colin Sutton.
Manhunt series 1 featured Clunes as DCI Sutton, which told the real life story of how the murder of Amelie Delagrange in 2004 was eventually linked to the murder of Marsha McDonnell in 2003 and the abduction and murder of Milly Dowler as she travelled home from school in 2002.
Manhunt II: The Night Stalker will air on ITV later this year.
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