Irvine Welsh’s police thriller returns to the scene of the Crime
Irvine Welsh’s Edinburgh-set police thriller Crime is set to return for a second series – and Dougray Scott will return as the hard-hitting TV show’s troubled protagonist.
The series, which premiered on Britbox last November, is based on the Edinburgh-born Trainspotting author’s 2008 novel of the same name, following detective Ray Lennox (Scott) – and marked Welsh’s first foray into television.
Produced by Buccaneer Media and Off Grid Film and TV, and scripted by Welsh alongside screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh, the six-part drama will be an ITVX premiere, exclusive to ITV’S new free streaming service.
Series one of Crime will also have a free premiere on ITVX ahead of the second series launch.
Scott, who is also Crime’s executive producer, said: “Making Crime has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my career.
“I’m so grateful to get to work once again with the great Irvine Welsh, my wonderful producing partner Tony Wood and all at Buccaneer and ITV. I feel very fortunate.”
Welsh said: “I loved working on the first season of Crime, and Dean Cavanagh and myself are already having a blast developing scripts for the second series. It was wonderful to work with such a talented cast and we hope to push those memorable characters further this time.”
The series has been commissioned by Head of Drama, Polly Hill, who added: “Crime was a brilliantly original series and a perfect fit for ITVX, where we want to showcase drama as distinctive and original as this police procedure from Irvine Welsh.
“The next chapter in Lennox’s story is just as bold and we look forward to introducing a new audience to Crime when it comes onto ITVX next year.”
When the first series of Crime aired last year, Welsh said the series “couldn't have worked on traditional TV".
The 63-year-old Leither continued: “It couldn't have worked on terrestrial TV, we couldn't really make the show we wanted to make.
“We were still, until fairly recently, stuck in these, sort of, dark ages of everything has to be BBC, ITV, Channel 4. And we have got platforms now that we can do things in a different way. I think it opens up drama, I think drama in this country, TV drama, will come of age now.”
He said the ”luxury” of the streaming platform meant it could get into the character driven drama much more quickly than programmes like Line of Duty.
Welsh described the detective inspector, played by Scott, as a "compulsive obsessive hunter for the truth" who “doesn't recognise the realpolitik of the criminal justice system”.
“He believes that law's for everyone and he believes that violent and sexual crimes against the person are the real kind of heinous crimes and the rest are kind of just misdemeanours.”
He said the lead character, in taking the "disturbed and dangerous people” outside of the game, was a way to cleanse and purify himself from his past experiences.
“He's not really concerned about the machinations of law, the legal system, or what's on the statute book. He just wants to stop bad people doing things to ordinary citizens.”