Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger reunite for Strike – The Ink Black Heart

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger are back on set for the sixth instalment of the BBC’s detective drama Strike.

Based once again on JK Rowling’s crime novels written as Robert Galbraith, Strike – The Ink Black Heart sees the pair reprise their roles as private investigators and business partners Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. The cast also includes David Westhead, Christian McKay, Emma Fielding, Tupele Dorgu and James Nelson-Joyce.

When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, Robin 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 decides that the agency can’t help with this – and thinks nothing more of it until a few days 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 Cormoran then 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.

Returning cast include Ruth Sheen as Pat, Strike’s office manager, alongside Jack Greenlees as Sam Barclay, Natasha O’Keeffe as Charlotte and Caitlin Innes Edwards as Isla.

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

Expected to air in early 2025, The Ink Black Heart 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 JK Rowling (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Strike, The Casual Vacancy), Neil Blair (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Strike, The Casual Vacancy) and Ruth Kenley-Letts (Too Close, Strike, You Don’t Know Me) alongside Nick Lambon for the BBC.

HBO has North American rights and Warner Bros is selling the show internationally. The previous five series of Strike are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

tagged in: Holliday Grainger, JK Rowling, Strike, Tom Burke