Stephen Tompkinson to star in new ITV crime drama

Stephen Tompkinson to star in new ITV crime drama
Stephen Tompkinson to star in new ITV crime drama (Image credit: Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment)

Stephen Tompkinson will play a detective in a major new crime thriller for ITV, it has been announced. The Wild at Heart star will play the title role in the two-part drama DCI Banks: Aftermath, based on Peter Robinson's best-selling detective novel. Produced by Left Bank Pictures, the company behind the hit BBC drama Wallander, DCI Banks: Aftermath explores the events that follow after two police constables stumble upon an horrific scene at a house. Their discovery reveals the identity of a serial killer, kick-starting an investigation that tests DCI Alan Banks to the limit. "DCI Banks: Aftermath is a classy, contemporary thriller and we're delighted to have commissioned a two-part pilot from Left Bank Pictures," said ITV's Sally Haynes. "Banks is brooding and melancholic with more than his fair share of baggage. Stephen is a really versatile actor and it’s great to see him in a darker role." The drama will go into production in Yorkshire at the end of April 2010. Further casting details will be announced shortly.

Patrick McLennan

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.