Some TV returners filming next year

14/12/2015
Features
by Nia Daniels

Well, it’s nearly the end of the year, but before we disappear into a fog of mince pies and mulled wine, we thought we’d take a look at a few of the dramas making a return to our small screens with production set for 2016.

Production Intelligence subscribers will have seen the announcements coming thick and fast all year, but here is a selection box for you all to pick through.

Broadchurch 3
Chris Chibnall’s murder mystery drama hit the ground running with its first series launch in March 2013, swiftly becoming event TV as viewers were drawn into the whodunnit set in a seaside town full of secrets and suspicion. A second series followed, along with a US version, Gracepoint. Series 3 will be up and running next summer; PI subscribers can expect a producer confirmation early next year.

broadchurch 595

Sherlock 4
The Benedict Cumberbatch behemoth continues apace as production readies on Series 4 of Sherlock next year. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s clever updating of Conan Doyle’s classics have been a hit from the get-go, with the third series becoming the UK’s most-watched drama series since 2001. A flagship BBC drama, it has sold in over 200 territories worldwide. PI subscribers can log in for the name of the line producer, with plenty more HoDs and exact shoot dates to be confirmed early in 2016.

Sherlock 505

Doctor Foster 2
It’s officially the drama that gets telly execs hot under the collar. At the Broadcast Commissioning Forum, the contemporary, non-crime drama was repeatedly quoted as the series that commissioners wished they had landed. Suranne Jones led the cast as the GP driven to extremes by her husband’s infidelity. The Mike-Bartlett five-parter became the highest-rated new drama of 2015, so hopes are high for the second run; PI subscribers should follow the project to get email updates next year.

Doctor Foster

Safe House 2
A second run of ITV’s tense thriller, Safe House, is set to shoot in February, with shooting taking place once again in the Lake District. The 4 x 60 is from Eleventh Hour, with Tracey Malone joining writer Ed Whitmore and with Marc Evans back at the helm to direct. On PI you can find shoot dates, line producer, location manager and casting director. We will update again in the new year.

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Ordinary Lies 2
The car showroom-set drama Ordinary Lies comes from the mighty Red Production Company, home of hits such as Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley. Writer Danny Brocklehurst – a regular red collaborator – writes the show, which features the lives and loves of a group of colleagues with a linking theme of lies and deceit. A late spring shoot is on the cards; we look forward to providing more specific names on PI as they board the project.

Ordinaray Lies

Our Girl 2
The second series of Our Girl sees Michelle Keegan stepping into the army boots vacated by Lacey Turner when shooting begins next spring. This time set on the Kenya/Somalia border the 5 x 60 for BBC One is from writer Tony Grounds, who penned the original one-off drama. The casting director is listed on PI, with more crucial hires to be confirmed soon after the Christmas break.

Michelle Keegan

DCI Banks 5
PI subscribers will know that we have already listed a comprehensive round-up of HoDs on Series 5 of the dark crime thriller, including the line producer, production designer, location managers, casting director and production co-ordinator. Based on the gritty crime novels by Peter Robinson, the ITV drama from Left Bank Pictures stars Stephen Tompkinson as the troubled titular ‘tec. A three-month shoot begins in late February.

DCI Banks

Call the Midwife 6
The nuns and nurses of east London are back again in the BBC’s hit period drama from the pen of Heidi Thomas. The drama seemed to capture the viewing public’s imagination: by the time the third series aired in January 2014, the consolidate audience figure was a whopping 10.53 million. Shooting normally runs from late spring for around five months on the Neal Street show, making its home at Longcross Studios. We will verify more details for PI subscribers on the site next year.

Call the Midwife

Silent Witness 20
Yes, 20. The popular drama set in the grisly world of forensic pathology has been a consistent performer for nearly 20 years, with Amanda Burton and Emilia Fox having led the charge since 1996. A hefty shoot is the order of the day here too, with often seven months of filming on the hour-long eps. Plenty more to come on this one, so PI subscribers should make sure they are following the project on our site.

Silent Witness

Hinterland 3
Hinterland is a rare beast – a drama that is recorded in two languages, Welsh and English, and shared across two UK channels. Its Welsh title, Y Gwyll, means ‘the dusk’, a fitting title for the brooding drama once christened Wales’ answer to Nordic noir. (In fact the Danish producer of The Killing acquired the broadcast rights before filming had even started in 2012).

Wales itself plays a big part in the show, with the foreboding landscape providing more than just a backdrop for the burdened DCI Tom Mathias, played by Richard Harrington. Filming begins the second week in January; on PI is a full round-up of key names on board.

Hinterland

Space doesn’t allow us to name all the returning dramas – with critically acclaimed hits such as Humans, Line of Duty and No Offence also lining up to shoot next year - but we hope this has given you a taste of some of the production activity in this field we have been covering on PI.