ITV recommissions Dark Heart for full series

You may remember that last year Tom Riley starred as DI Will Wagstaffe in the entertaining Dark Heart for ITV Encore. Now ITV has commissioned drama label Silverprint Pictures to produce a full, six-part series with Riley returning as DI Will Wagstaffe, a man haunted by the murder of his parents when he was 16 years old.

Review: The Frankenstein Chronicles (S2 E6/6), Wednesday 6th December, ITV Encore

NB: SPOILERS INSIDE

The Frankenstein Chronicles draw to a close this week, as John Marlott must make stark choices in order to save those he loves and end the madness and murder stalking Westminster once and for all.

Review: Dark (S1 E1-10), Netflix

Everything is connected. That’s the mantra at the core of new supernatural crime series Dark, the first big-budget German TV collaboration with Netflix. Unusually for a native language show, the streaming service has gone in big on its promotion, presumably in an attempt to ensnare viewers post-Stranger Things who are searching for something equally spooky to fill their winter nights. Whilst the two shows may share a surface similarity in their tales of missing children, Dark is a fundamentally different experience – chilling, gruesome and relentlessly morose. Depending on your tolerance for the paranormal, it could very well be one of the best new TV shows of the year – or one of the worst.

BBC One confirms transmissions details for The Miniaturist

One of the big festive dramas from the Beeb is the two-part adaptation of Jessie Burton’s best-selling period thriller, The Miniaturist. It stars Anya Taylor, Romola Garai, Hayley Squires, Paapa Essiedu and Emily Berrington, and looks set to be one of the highlights of the festive season. Now we know when it’s going to be shown.

ITV confirms transmission date for Maigret

Last year, ITV took the plunge and played out a feature-length Maigret on Christmas Day, which was a bit of a shocker actually. This year there’s another festive Maigret offering – the latest Rowan Atkinson-starring adaptation of Georges Simenon’s classics being Maigret Of Montmartre. It’s not going to Christmas Day this year, but it’s going to be pretty close.

BBC Four confirms transmission date for series six of Spiral

I can’t be bothered to write anything here because you’re all eager to know what’s what when it comes to Spiral. Let’s just cut to the chase, eh? All we can say that it’s good news and it’ll be quite an end to the year – hold onto your hats, here comes series six of Spiral. Oh and indeed la la.

The 10 Best Crime Dramas This Week (Monday 4th – Sunday 10th December)

Not much new this week (hold on for next week), but have no fear – there’s still lots of quality crime drama out there that rumbles on. Witnesses and Peaky Blinders carries on, while The Frankenstein Chronicles, Un Bor Mercher and Jordskott come to an end. Enjoy!

Witnesses (S2 E3&4/8), Saturday 2nd December, BBC Four

NB: SPOILERS INSIDE

Last week’s opening two episodes of the second series of French crime drama, Witnesses, fell straight back into place and gave us pretty much everything we loved about the first series: a terrifyingly grotesque tableaux, a case that was commenting in some way about social and biological constructs, and an intriguing relationship between two female leads. Let’s see how episodes three and four went after last week’s promising start.