New local serial police drama Hope Street, a co-commission between BritBox North America, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Daytime, is coming to BBC Daytime on BBC One from Monday 31 January at 2.15pm.

Set in the fictional town of Port Devine on the Northern Ireland coast, the ten-part drama will focus on the town’s police department and the mysterious arrival of English Detective Constable Leila Hussain, played by Amara Karan (The Night Of), the first Muslim police officer in the town’s history.

With each episode featuring a self-contained crime story, the series will also follow the ups and downs of those working in the police department as they deal with everyday policing in the beautiful seaside town.

Behind this exciting new drama are acclaimed producers Paul Marquess and Donna Wiffen from Long Story TV, known for producing brilliant British drama including The Bill and creating shows like London Kills. With the addition of Susanne Farrell (Dirty God) and writers Farrell, Jess Lea (EastEnders), Christine Murphy (Emmerdale) and Stuart Drennan (Hollyoaks).

The ensemble cast features actors Ciaran McMenamin (Primeval) as Inspector Finn O’Hare, Niamh McGrady (The Fall) as Nicole Devine, Kerri Quinn (Coronation Street) as Sergeant Marlene Pettigrew, Aaron McCusker (Shameless) as Clint Dunwoody, Brid Brennan (Unforgotten) as Concepta O’Hare, Des McAleer (The Crown) as Barry Pettigrew, Broadway star Rachel Tucker as Siobhan O’Hare and Niall Wright (6 Degrees) as PC Callum McCarthy,

Hope Street, filmed in Donaghadee, was made with support from Northern Ireland Screen.

Foreword from Paul Marquess, Executive Producer – Long Story TV

It all started in 1979. With a schoolfriend, I signed up for a youth drama scheme at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. Before long I was devising and performing street theatre – and appearing on Scene Around Six (good news stories were like hen’s teeth in the late ’70s).

The Crescent scheme utterly changed the course of my life. And it soon became clear to me that, if I wanted to progress in my chosen profession, I was going to have to leave Northern Ireland.

Since the ’70s, of course, much has changed in Northern Ireland. We’ve had peace – and hosted Game Of Thrones. Indeed, a huge amount of television drama has been shot here. But very, very little of it with a Northern Irish accent.

Which is where Hope Street comes in.

Our ambition is simple. To produce a long-running, returning drama series – set in, and all about, Northern Ireland. From the outset we were determined that the series shouldn’t be about the Troubles or serial killers, but should capture the warmth, good humour and resilience of people from Northern Ireland.

We’ve assembled a cracking team of writers and a stellar (almost entirely) local cast along with a highly skilled crew – and we hope that the series will make you laugh and shed the odd tear.

But, on a personal level, I have another aspiration.

My hope is that the existence of a series like Hope Street means that the 2022 version of seventeen-year-old me can carve out a career in TV drama in Northern Ireland – so he or she doesn’t have to pack up their rucksack and get on the Liverpool boat…