ITV REVEALS 2025 DRAMA HIGHLIGHTS, NEW AND RETURNING TITLES

ITV have revealed its slate of new and returning drama series due to air in 2025. Exact transmission details will be confirmed in due course.

PLAYING NICE

ITV

Set against a sweeping Cornish landscape, two couples discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up and face a horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved or reclaim their biological child? Living a waking nightmare, Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple Miles (James McArdle) and Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay).

OUT THERE

ITV

County lines drug-dealing and an escalating and insidious crime wave sweeping the British countryside are the subject of this drama starring Martin Clunes as a farmer confronted with dark forces seeping into his rural community.

The drama will depict the stealthy and surreptitious invasion of the land our farmer cherishes with devastating consequences as his livelihood, homestead and family life are threatened by local county lines drugs dealers who are essentially urban gangs using the British countryside as a field of operations and moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas.

GRANTCHESTER

ITV

1961 - life is good for Will and Geordie (Robson Green). The families are always together, from Sunday lunches to planning summer holidays - with honorary grandparents Mrs C and Jack and adopted uncles Daniel and Leonard, it’s one big happy family! However, when Will is approached with a life-changing offer, can he leave Grantchester and Geordie behind?

UNFORGOTTEN

ITV

The hugely successful and critically acclaimed drama - created and written by multi-award-winning screenwriter Chris Lang - returns and invites viewers once again into the emotional depth and complexity of cold case investigations. The sixth series sees the return of Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DCI Jess James and DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan, bringing back their compelling on-screen partnership as they delve into unresolved crimes and promising another powerful exploration of hidden truths and long-buried secrets.

THE BAY

ITV

Set in Morecambe, Marsha Thomason remains as Morecambe’s MIU Family Liaison Officer DS Jenn Townsend alongside cast regulars Daniel Ryan, Erin Shanagher and Andrew Dowbiggin. Olwen May (Happy Valley, Trying) joins the team, Barry Sloane returns as Chris Fischer, Georgia Scholes plays Chris’s daughter Erin, and David Carpenter and Emme Hayes return as Conor and Maddie, Jenn’s children - Suzanne Packer (Casualty, Keeping Faith) joins as Jenn’s mum Anne Townsend.

KAREN PIRIE

ITV

 In the societal turmoil of 1984, Catriona Grant is the heiress to an oil fortune when she is kidnapped at gunpoint with her young son Adam - it’s assumed that the motivation is political as the huge investigation creates an uncontrollable press storm… but when the culprits unexpectedly fall silent, the case runs cold and Catriona and Adam are never seen again.

MIDSOMER MURDERS

ITV

Episode 1 - The Devil's Work

The demise of the Shirewell patriarch sparks a vicious inheritance dispute when eldest son Lucian announces plans to break up an estate that's been in his family for centuries.

PROTECTION

ITV

 As much of a conspiracy thriller as it is a police drama, this is the story of a compromised but ultimately honest police officer who is out of her depth yet acutely driven to understand the truth of her lover and how far a case of corruption goes.

RIDLEY

ITV

Ridley returns to solve more crimes in four two hour films written by Paul Matthew Thompson with Julia Gilbert (Midsomer Murders) and Michael Bhim (Vera) each writing an episode. Inspired by real life retired detectives re-joining police forces in a consultancy role given increasingly over-stretched resources, Ridley explores thought provoking crime stories in an original and distinctive way.

GRACE

ITV

Based on the best-selling novels from globally renowned author Peter James, series five will comprise of the following four films - Dead If You Don't, Dead At First Sight, Need You Dead and Find Them Dead. Also reprising their roles for series five are Richie Campbell (Top Boy, Stephen) who plays DS Glenn Branson, Zoë Tapper (Liar) as Cleo Morey, Laura Elphinstone (Chernobyl) as DS Bella Moy, Brad Morrison (Outlander) as DC Nick Nicholl and Sam Hoare (The Castaways) as ACC Cassian Pewe.

More details on all the titles will be revealed in due course.