BBC faces new Strike action

FIRST LOOK: Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger return for Strike – The Ink Black Heart, the sixth installment in the BBC detective drama based on the novels by JK Rowling (as Robert Galbraith) that will launch in December.

When frantic, desperate Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott (Grainger) doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.

Robin informs Edie that the agency is too busy to take on her case and thinks nothing more of it until a few weeks later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike (Burke) become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches them to their limit.

The four-part series sees Burke and Grainger lead a cast that also includes David Westhead, Emma Fielding and James Nelson-Joyce. Returning faces include Ruth Sheen as office manager Pat, Jack Greenlees as Sam Barclay, Natasha O’Keeffe as Charlotte and Caitlin Innes Edwards as Isla.

Sue Tully returns to direct Strike – The Ink Black Heart, her third time working on the series. Her credits include Strike – Troubled Blood, Too Close, Strike – Lethal White, Line of Duty, Tin Star, The A Word and The Musketeers.

The novel is adapted for the screen by writer Tom Edge (Vigil, You Don’t Know Me), who also adapted previous Strike instalments Troubled Blood, The Silkworm, Career of Evil and Lethal White.

Jenny van der Lande (Too Close, You Don’t Know Me) is story producer and Alex Rendell returns as producer. Executive producers are Rowling, Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts, alongside Nick Lambon for the BBC.

HBO has North American rights and Warner Bros Discovery is selling the show internationally.

Strike – The Ink Black Heart is coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer this December.

tagged in: BBC One, HBO, Holliday Grainger, JK Rowling, Robert Galbraith, Strike, Strike – The Ink Black Heart, Sue Tully, Tom Burke