ITV to make new series of Vera and Scott & Bailey

ITV to make new series of Vera and Scott & Bailey (Image credit: Helen Turton)

ITV has announced it is recommissioning second series of four new dramas - Vera, Monroe, Scott & Bailey and Case Sensitive. ITV says it's recognition of their success after capturing eight of the top 10 most watched new dramas in 2011. Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn as a shabby detective chief inspector, averaged 6.6m viewers with a peak episode of 6.8m. The new series will consist of four two-hour episodes. Scott & Bailey featured Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp as two mismatched detectives in Manchester and ITV will screen eight new episodes in 2012. Monroe, starring James Nesbitt as neurosurgeon Gabriel Monroe, will film six new episodes in 2012. The debut series captured an average 5.7m viewers. Crime thriller Case Sensitive starred Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd and averaged 6m viewers in its debut. It will return with two new episodes in 2012. ITV's Director of Drama Commissioning Laura Mackie said: "We couldn’t be more delighted with the success of Vera, Case Sensitive, Monroe and Scott & Bailey. It’s terrific to think we are commissioning the most watched and appreciated original dramas for the ITV1 audience."

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.