The future looks bright for fans of British police detective series. After discovering that hit show Line of Duty is coming back for a sixth season after a 3-year hiatus, viewers can now look forward to another title: Rivers of London is in the works at Sky Studios, as revealed by Deadline. The story centers around a Met police officer who is assigned to work on supernatural cases in a special wing of the police force. The new series is yet to get a release window.
Despite being in early stages, it looks like the production of Rivers of London is moving at a fast pace. A writers’ room has been formed with John Jackson at the lead. Jackson has written for several popular shows including Netflix‘s The Gentlemen, BBC supernatural series Being Human and PBS Masterpiece‘s Grantchester. Joining Jackson in the writers’ room is a team that includes Tobi King Bakare (I May Destroy You), Kara Smith (Lockwood & Co), Joshua St Johnson (Grantchester), Tolula Dada (Gangs of London), and Robin French (Sanditon).
Known as Midnight Riot in the U.S., Rivers of London is a novel written by Ben Aaronovitch that was first released in 2011. The novel became the first of a best-selling series that has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. So far, the main novel series has nine volumes, which suggests that there’s plenty of stories to adapt to the screen and, if the production goes with a novel-by-novel adaptation, we could be looking at a long-running series. One of the production companies involved is See Saw, the same one that adapted Slow Horses — the investigative show is renewed through Season 6 on Apple TV+.
It’s A New Dawn For British Detective Shows
If the Rivers of London series follows the structure of the novels, viewers will witness main character Peter Grant taking on cases that involve gods and goddesses, magic and many forms of supernatural activity. Also according to Deadline, the new series has already attracted the interest of U.S. buyers, which may indicate that the show may find a streaming home on this side of the pond before it premieres on Sky.
British detective shows are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., with some of its bold approaches to storytelling and cases resonating with audiences from all over the world. Before Rivers of London comes around, viewers can already tune in for Season 9 of Shetland while also being excited for the highly anticipated return of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley to screens with a brand-new adaptation.
Sky is yet to announce additional information from Rivers of London, including cast, episode count and release window.
via Collider