Fay Ripley has been announced as the lead in an innovative new Channel 5 crime drama, Suspects.
The Cold Feet actress will head a cast that also includes Being Human's Damien Molony and Top Boy's Clare-Hope Ashitey for the series, which sees actors improvise their lines and filming follow the format of a documentary or fly-on-the-wall show.
Fay plays DI Martha Bellamy, a warm, friendly inspector who's fiercely protective of her team, Damien's character DS Jack Weston and Clare-Hope's DC Charlotte Steele.
Talking about what had tempted her to take a crime drama role, Fay said: "I have shied away from playing cops for years, but I have always wanted to work on the right cop show. The whole method of filming [Suspects] brings to it a sense of reality, so I am playing myself as a cop, rather than playing someone else's telly version of me.
"We all feel like we're in this new and exciting thing together, we are all allowed to pitch in - which you rarely are as an actor - so it definitely is handing us something that we are not normally handed. It's all up for grabs."
The series runs for 10 episodes, with each one opening on a news report and then following the detectives as they investigate the case before they come to their conclusion.
Stories covered in Suspects will include a missing soldier with PTSD, a serial rapist, a sex trafficking gang, and the shooting of a clergyman.
Suspects will air on Channel 5 in the new year.
