ITV orders follow-up to 'The Long Firm'

ITV1 has commissioned an adaptation of Jake Arnott’s He Kills Coppers, the follow up to his first novel The Long Firm.

The Long Firm was made into a BBC Two series in 2004, with lead Mark Strong receiving critical acclaim for his role as 1960s gay gangster Harry Starks.

Rafe Spall, Kelly Reilly and Maureen Lipman will star in the new three-part adaptation, written by Waking the Dead writer Ed Whitmore.

The series begins in summer 1966, and follows a detective, a journalist and a petty thief caught up in the brutal murder of three policemen. The impact of the event is played out through the decades, ending in Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s.

ITV director of drama Laura Mackie, who commissioned the series and was executive producer on The Long Firm when she was at the BBC, said : "It is a passionate and moving story which charts the journeys of three men whose lives are thrown together by a brutal act on the day of the 1966 World Cup."

Prime Suspect's David Boulter will produce for Ecosse Films with Adrian Shergold directing.

Jake Arnott said: "I thought that the dramatisation of The Long Firm would be a hard act to follow, but this is a tremendous adaptation of my second novel. The casting is incredibly exciting and I look forward to seeing how they portray these characters on screen."