THE RUNNING GRAVE: CRIME DRAMA STRIKE RETURNS TO BBC FOR SEVENTH SERIES, RETURNING CAST ANNOUNCED

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger return for the next instalment of Strike in The Running Grave, the seventh (5x60min) story of the BBC’s hit crime drama in co-production with HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery and based on J.K. Rowling’s best-selling crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Souvenir) as Cormoran Strike and Grainger (The Capture, The Stolen Girl) as Robin Ellacott lead a cast of acclaimed British actors including James Fleet (I, Jack Wright, Bridgerton), as Sir Colin Edensor, Nichola McAuliffe (Living, The English) as Shelley Heaton.

Plus Keeley Forsyth (Poor Things, Happy Valley) as Mazu Wace, Fabian McCallum (The Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Witcher) as Will Edensor, and John Lynch (Tin Star, Blue Lights) as Jonathan Wace.

Ruth Sheen (Unforgotten, It’s A Sin) will return as Pat, Strike’s office manager, alongside fellow returning cast members Jack Greenlees (The Trial of Cristine Keeler, Payback) as Sam Barclay, Tupele Dorgu (The Full Monty [TV series], Alma’s Not Normal) as Midge, Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders, The Wheel of Time) as Charlotte.

Plus Sarah Sweeney (The Bastard Executioner, Cider with Rosie) as Lucy, Ben Crompton (Game of Thrones, Lockwood & Co) as Shanker, Stephen Hagan (You, Hope Street) as DCI Richard Murphy, and Caitlin Innes Edwards (Silo, Black Mirror: Smithereens) as Ilsa.

When Sir Colin and Sally Edensor approach Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, they are desperate to reconnect with their estranged son, Will. The Edensors enlist the detectives to gather evidence to discredit the Universal Humanitarian Church, a religious cult who have indoctrinated Will and siphoned off his trust fund.

Led by the charismatic Jonathan Wace, the church is shielded by a charitable façade, celebrity backers and aggressive lawyers who have silenced critics. To investigate allegations of ill-treatment and abuse, Robin goes undercover at the cult’s secluded Norfolk headquarters, Chapman Farm. At the centre of the church’s twisted mythology is the story of the Drowned Prophet, Daiyu, believed to be divinely reincarnated.

While Strike gains valuable insights from former members on the outside, Robin finds herself facing unprecedented psychological and physical duress on the inside. Solving the mystery of the Drowned Prophet’s death becomes key to the case but leads the detectives into dangerous, unchartered territory.

More details will be announced in due course.