BBC BETS ON BIG RETURNING DRAMA TITLES, FROM LINE OF DUTY TO DOCTOR FOSTER

A look at the returning BBC drama titles coming soon...

LINE OF DUTY

In series seven AC-12 has been disbanded and rebranded the Inspectorate of Police Standards. Anticorruption work has never been more difficult and in this challenging climate Steve Arnott (Martin Compston), Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) are assigned their most sensitive case so far.

Detective Inspector Dominic Gough, a charismatic officer winning plaudits for a string of takedowns of organised crime, is accused of abusing his position of trust to act as a sexual predator. But is Gough’s case a deliberate distraction from a bigger threat still operating in the shadows?

 PEAKY BLINDERS

Having fought a violent war, much of it behind enemy lines, Charles Shelby (Charlie Heaton) is now embracing normality. He hasn’t seen his half-brother Duke (Jamie Bell), in years. Charles severed all ties to the Peaky Blinders gang, and the hedonistic Shelby lifestyle. But can you ever escape your own blood?

In this new era of Peaky Blinders, a decade after World War Two, the race to rebuild Birmingham becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions. This is a city of unprecedented opportunity and danger: with the Shelby family right at its blood-soaked heart.

 DOCTOR FOSTER

Ten years ago, on discovering her husband Simon was having an affair, Gemma Foster enacted a masterful revenge. But the fallout was devastating when her 15-year-old son Tom disappeared. Now, in series three, Gemma is still a GP, still in the same house, but on the brink of a fresh start: she has met someone new and is getting married.

But as the wedding day draws closer, and friends and family gather, shadows from the past begin to re-emerge threatening both her happiness and her reputation. As Gemma fights to protect those she loves and expose whoever’s intent on hurting her, will she be able to put the past to bed, dispense justice, and claim the future she deserves, before it is too late?

 VIGIL

DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) and DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) return for a new case that takes them to a remote Arctic research station, where a member of a covert British special forces mission has been shot dead. Amy and Kirsten will need to catch the killer and defuse a potential international confrontation, driven by a land-grab for energy and resources in the changing polar climate, with both their careers and relationship on the line.

 SHERWOOD

Six months on, the third series of Sherwood sees a new family at its heart. The Wood family is the picture of working-class respectability – pillars of the community, volunteers at the local church, with Zoe Wood (Craig), in particular, a passionate campaigner on behalf of her town.

Husband Alex Wood (Dempsie) is overseeing construction of the new Gotham housing estate which is being built in the shadows of Sherwood Forest, and where they live with their kids and Zoe’s parents, Irene and Eric Bostall (Johnston and Wight), as the estate’s first residents.

 SAS ROGUE HEROES

Based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book of the same name, the third instalment continues the dramatised story of the world’s greatest Special Forces unit, with the semi-fictionalised series charting their astounding feats of bravery and the impact of war upon the men.

Summer, 1944, France. Paddy Mayne and his Rogues have parachuted deep behind enemy lines and must destroy and disrupt the mighty German army as they continue to repel the Allied advances. Alongside the French resistance and new recruits, the SAS once again face seemingly unsurmountable challenges, as the liberation of Western Europe begins.

Transmission details will be announced in due course.