TV

Manhunt: Martin Clunes to return as DCI Colin Sutton for new series of ITV drama

The new series will be called Manhunt II: The Night Stalker

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Manhunt, starring Martin Clunes, is returning for a new series.

ITV confirmed on Tuesday (November 10) it has commissioned a follow-up to the 2019 drama, which also starred Call The Midwife actress Katie Lyons and Grantchester’s Claudie Blakley.

Martin Clunes is returning as Manhunt’s DCI Colin Sutton (Credit: SplashNews.com)

What is the new series of Manhunt about and who does Martin Clunes play?

Martin Clunes will be back as former London Metropolitan Police detective DCI Colin Sutton in Manhunt II: The Night Stalker, a four-part drama telling the real-life story of the race to catch a notorious serial rapist.

Delroy Grant’s 17-year reign of terror had thousands in south east London living in fear.

The programme is based on Colin Sutton’s diaries.

Martin Clunes as DCI Colin Sutton in Manhunt II The Night Stalker
The new series, Manhunt II: The Night Stalker, will see DCI Sutton pursue a serial rapist (Credit: ITV)

What was the first series about?

The first series, shown last year, saw DCI Sutton pursuing serial killer Levi Bellfield, showing how cops eventually linked the murder of Amelie Delagrange on Twickenham Green, in 2004, to the murder of Marsha McDonnell a year earlier and the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002.

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ITV said it attracted an average audience of nine million viewers and was the highest rated new drama of 2019 on any channel.

Silent Witness writer Ed Whitmore, who also penned the first series of Manhunt, is working on the new series.

I’m delighted that Martin Clunes will play DCI Colin Sutton once again.

Executive producer Philippa Braithwaite said: “We are very pleased that ITV have given us the opportunity to dramatise another important case that Colin Sutton was involved in just before his retirement from the Force.

“This inquiry has a very different emphasis to the Bellfield case; the victims were elderly and the crimes were unsolved for many years. The drama explores how Colin came late to the inquiry and helped solve it in a matter of weeks, taking an incredibly dangerous serial rapist off the streets.”

Martin Clunes as DCI Colin Sutton in Manhunt
The first series of Manhunt was the best performing new drama of 2019 (Credit: ITV)

When is the new series of Manhunt on TV?

Filming on Manhunt II is now underway. The drama is expected to air in 2021.

ITV head of drama Polly Hill said: “I’m delighted that Martin Clunes will play DCI Colin Sutton once again, taking on a case that had gone unsolved for almost two decades.

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“The team behind the first Manhunt – Ed Whitmore, Marc Evans, along with Buffalo and Philippa Braithwaite – will make sure this is another compelling and respectful dramatisation of a truly shocking crime that affected so many families.”

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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