NORTHERN Irish actor Laura Donnelly will lead the cast of a new ITV drama.
First look images released this week show Belfast-born Donnelly in action as Detective Inspector Monica Kennedy in The Dark.
Donnelly, who trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, has previously starred in the likes of HBO’s The Nevers, Starz’ Outlander and FX’s Say Nothing.
She is a stage star too, having won the Best Actress Olivier Award in 2018 for her performance in The Ferryman, which was written by her long-term partner Jez Butterworth and directed by Sam Mendes.
Laura Donnelly in The Dark
Set in the Scottish countryside, The Dark is a six-part series based on GR Halliday’s debut novel From the Shadows.
In it DI Kennedy embarks on a tense cat and mouse hunt for a twisted serial killer after a 16-year-old boy goes missing.
Mark Rowley stars as her new partner DC Connor Crawford, while Helen Baxendale plays distraught mother Bethany Morgan.
Mark Rowley plays DC Connor Crawford
The images released this week “give audiences a chilling first glimpse of the murderer, masked, dangerous and poised to kill again” an ITV spokesperson said.
Adapted for the screen by Matt Hartley and produced by ITV’s Poison Pen Studios, The Dark will air on ITV, STV and on ITVX this summer.