Code of Silence
Not to be confused with the ropey 2021 Kray Twins movie or the similarly ropey 2021 Maine-set redemption feature of the same name, Code of Silence will be a six-part ITV thriller starring EastEnders actor, Strictly Come Dancing champion and deaf activist Rose Ayling-Ellis. It’s the story of Alison, a deaf caterer hired by the police to work as a forensic lip reader, and who develops feelings for one of the main suspects. Filming began in October 2024, so don’t expect to see this one until later in the year. ITV
Cold Water
The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln returns to UK drama in this six-part ITV crime thriller about a couple (played by Lincoln and Indira Varma) who uproot themselves and move to a remote Scottish island in the hope of a fresh start. There, Lincoln’s character strikes up a fast friendship with their oddball neighbour (played by Euan Bremner), which sends alarm bells ringing in his wife’s mind. ITV
Death Valley
This six-part BBC Two/BBC Wales series features a Welsh detective and a retired actor famous for playing a detective teaming up to solve crimes. Written by Trollied’s Paul Doolan, it stars Timothy Spall as national treasure John Chapel, beloved for fictional television show ‘Caesar’, and Gwyneth Keyworth as DS Janie Mallowan. BBC Two/BBC Wales
Department Q
Netflix has transported the action of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Danish noir novels to Scotland for this English-language adaptation of the popular crime series. A Discovery of Witches’ Matthew Goode plays Carl Morck, a detective traumatised by a previous case in which one colleague died and another was paralysed. Goode stars alongside Scottish acting greats Mark Bonnar, Kelly Macdonald, Shirley Henderson and Kate Dickie. Netflix
Dope Girls
Bad Wolf, the Wales-based producers of His Dark Materials, A Discovery of Witches and now, Doctor Who, are behind a new 1920s-set crime drama. Pitched as a spiritual successor to Peaky Blinders, it’s about the female gangs who operated in London’s Soho after World War One, and was inspired by Marek Kohn’s 1992 non-fiction book of the same name, subtitled The Birth of the British Drug Underground. Mare of Easttown’s Julianne Nicholson and Little Women’s Eliza Scanlen star. BBC One
Down Cemetery Road
Adapted from a book by Mick “Slow Horses” Herron by one of that show’s writers Morwenna Banks, Down Cemetery Road has plenty to recommend it before we come to a cast including Emma Thompson, Ruth Wilson, Adeel Akhtar, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Tom Riley, Tom Goodman-Hill and many more familiar names. Coming to Apple TV+, it’s the story of Sarah (Wilson), a woman who becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a young girl after an explosion, and who teams up with a police detective (Thompson) to get to the truth. Filming wrapped in autumn 2024. Apple TV+