Strike — The Ink Black Heart: release date, cast, plot, trailer and everything we know

Strike: The Ink Black Heart
(Image credit: BBC/Bronte Film & TV/Rob Youngson)

Strike — The Ink Black Heart starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger is the sixth story based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. And we now know it will begin on BBC One on December 16 and we have some new pictures and a trailer.

Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Souvenir) leads the cast as Cormoran Strike with Grainger (The Capture, Animals) as Robin Ellacott.

The four-part series sees the pair investigate the murder of the co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart. The previous series, Trouble Blood, picked up over eight million viewers when it was shown and the BBC will be hoping for the same impressive figures when Strike — The Ink Black Heart is screened.

Here's everything we know...

Strike — The Ink Black Heart release date

Strike: The Ink Black Heart Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke); Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger)

(Image credit: BBC/Bronte Film & TV/Rob Youngson)

Strike — The Ink Black Heart will begin on BBC One on Monday, December 16 at 9 pm. The second episode will air on Tuesday, December 17 at 9 pm. Episodes run for 60 minutes. Good news for fans it is being released as a box set on BBC iPlayer so you don't have to wait for the four episodes. They all drop on Monday, December 16.

The BBC has officially made the series part of its Christmas line-up. We have a Christmas TV Guide with all the big shows coming your way over the festive season.

We don't have a US release date yet.

What's the plot?

Strike: The Ink Black Heart Robin Ellacott with Cormoran Strike

Robin Ellacott with Cormoran Strike in the new series (Image credit: BBC/Bronte Film & TV/Rob Youngson)

The makers tease: "When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.

"Robin decides that the agency can't help with this — and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

"Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches them to their limit."

Strike — The Ink Black Heart cast

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger return. Ruth Sheen (Unforgotten, It’s A Sin) returns as Pat, Strike’s office manager, alongside fellow returning cast members Jack Greenlees (The Trial of Cristine Keeler, Payback) as Sam Barclay, Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders, The Wheel of Time) as Charlotte, and Caitlin Innes Edwards (Hanna, Black Mirror: Smithereens) as Ilsa.

David Westhead (Enola Holmes 2, Bodyguard), Christian McKay (Rivals, Dangerous Liaisons), Emma Fielding (Sanditon, Van der Valk), Tupele Dorgu (The Full Monty, Ridley) and James Nelson-Joyce (Time, Industry) all feature in the new series.

Is there a trailer?

Yes, one has finally landed...

Strike: The Ink Black Heart | Official Trailer - BBC - YouTube Strike: The Ink Black Heart | Official Trailer - BBC - YouTube
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Behind the scenes and more

A Strike - The Ink Black Heart behind-the-scenes shot showing Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) and Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) on set.

(Image credit: Rob Youngson/BBC/Bronte Film & TV)

Sue Tully, who EastEnders fans will remember as Michelle Fowler, returns to direct. It’s the third time she’s worked on Strike. It is adapted by writer Tom Edge (Vigil, You Don’t Know Me) who also adapted previous Strike installments Troubled Blood, The Silkworm, Career of Evil and Lethal White.

Jenny van der Lande (Too Close, You Don’t Know Me) is story producer and Alex Rendell returns as producer. Executive producers are J.K. Rowling (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Strike, The Casual Vacancy), Neil Blair (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Strike, The Casual Vacancy) and Ruth Kenley-Letts (Too Close, Strike, You Don’t Know Me) alongside Nick Lambon for the BBC.

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David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.

Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 

David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.

Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!

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