PREVIEW: 24 Hours In Police Custody (March 2021), Channel 4

The UK's biggest and most successful true crime documentary series returns with the first of four gripping new films that take viewers behind the scenes of police investigations into major crimes.

In Bedfordshire, a 23-year-old man is under arrest, but this isn't his first time in custody. In fact, he claims he has been held by the police many hundreds of times before. He is accused of committing a string of crimes where his victims have been left badly hurt. In his interview he simply answers 'no comment'. Without fresh evidence, officers have no choice but to release the suspect.

DS Claire Gilbert of Bedfordshire police can't hide her frustration; she believes he will offend again: 'if you are never left to account for what you do, then that breeds a belief that ''I am invincible''.' Within days of leaving police custody, the man is named by the public in reports of a fresh crime wave, which this time culminates in a sex attack on a young woman. On the run and apparently out of control, the suspect is now officially 'Most Wanted'. Cameras follow as armed officers are deployed to find and arrest him.

Every twist and turn of the case is recorded as DS Gilbert and her team piece together enough evidence to convict a suspect she regards as a danger to the public. This is real-life drama where the facts turn out to more compelling than fiction.

24 Hours In Police Custody begins Monday 22nd March at 9pm on Channel 4.