BritBox Picks Up ITV's 'The Tower' to Stream In December
On the heels of the success of The Long Call, BritBox is delving further into ITV's mystery cache with The Tower. Based on Kate London's debut novel, Post Mortem, the three-part drama was initially announced this past spring, filmed in early 2021, and has now only just finished its run on ITV to rave reviews. The series, which aired back to back on three consecutive nights in the U.K., revolves around investigating the death of a veteran police officer and a teenage girl and the search for those who witnessed it. The story opens when the two fall from the roof of a tower block in southeast London; a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer go missing in the wake of the tragedy.
London is a former police officer, and her novel, when it was released, had readers wondering how accurate to life her depiction of police corruption was. Much of the mystery involves whether or not there's a police cover-up and who is involved. The story itself is fictional, but there are enough true-to-life experiences London brought to the story that makes it feel real, a quality that reviews suggested translated into the adaptation. BritBox seems to be hoping the hype from its release in the U.k. will translate over here, with only a couple of weeks' space between the two premieres.
The series stars Gemma Whelan, best known for her stints on Game of Thrones over on HBO and Killing Eve last season on BBC America. She stars as Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins, the veteran investigator paired with recruit PC Lizzie Adama, played by Tahirah Sharif (The Haunting of Bly Manor). Check out the first trailer released by BritBox as part of the streamer's rolling out the series on this side of the pond.
The series logline is as follows:
Two people have fallen to their deaths: a veteran police officer and a teenage Muslim girl, and Collins sets out to uncover the truth.
Whelan and Sharif are joined by co-star Jimmy Akingbola (Kate & Koji) as DC Steve Bradshaw. The series also co-stars Emmett J Scanlan (Kin), Nick Holder (Grantchester), Karl Davies (Chernobyl), Michael Karim (Inspector Lewis), Harriet Webb (I May Destroy You), Jim English (My Mum Tracy Beaker), Robin Morrissey (Home), and newcomers Lola Elsokari and Rex Parry. The series hails from Windhover Films and Mammoth Screen, the ITV Studios-owned producer behind BBC/Netflix series The Serpent and Poldark.
Fans should note that Post Mortem was the first in a popular mystery series featuring these two detectives. Though no Season 2 has been greenlit yet, Sharif recently told The RadioTimes the series has the scope to go on, should ITV decide to continue with it.
All three episodes of The Tower will arrive at once on BritBox on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021.
