The First Look at BBC Drama 'The Jetty' Sees Jenna Coleman Solving Crime In a Lakeside Town
Archie Renaux and Jenna Coleman in "The Jetty"
(Image: BBC/Firebird Pictures/Ben Blackall)
Jenna Coleman is about to officially enter her detective era. The former Doctor Who star is hardly the first actor to bounce from traveling on cosmic adventures in the TARDIS to tackling crime in the gritty streets of London (or some other British city). Lots of them have done it, including David Tennant (Broadchurch), Peter Capaldi (Criminal Record), and Pearl Mackie (The Long Call). Now Coleman is set to join their ranks, starring in The Jetty, a crime thriller that examines sexual morality, grooming, identity, memory, and more.
The BBC has released the first batch of images from the upcoming four-part drama, giving viewers their first proper look at the series’ expansive cast and the eerie lakeside town where an arson, a missing persons cold case, and an illicit romantic triangle are intricately intertwined. In The Jetty, Coleman stars as Ember Manning, a rookie detective called in to investigate after a fire destroys a holiday home in a scenic lake town in Lancashire. But as she digs further into this unexplained event, she’ll find unexpected and potentially dark connections to everything from a podcast journalist who’s investigating a missing person’s case to an illicit love triangle involving a man in his twenties and two underage girls.
But as Ember gets closer to discovering the truth, the answers threaten to destroy her life – forcing her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about her past, present, and the town she’s always called home.
Archie Renaux in "The Jetty"
(Photo: BBC/Firebird Pictures/Matt Towers)
Alongside Coleman, the series also stars Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone) as Hitch, Ruby Stokes (Lockwood & Co.) as Hannah, Amelia Bullmore (The Buccaneers) as Sylvia, Tom Glynn-Carney (House of the Dragon) as Malachy, and Weruche Opia (I May Destroy You) plays Riz.
Jenna Coleman in "The Jetty"
(Photo: BBC/Firebird Pictures/Ben Blackall))
Other cast members include Laura Marcus (The Serpent Queen), Bo Bragason (Renegade Nell), Matthew McNulty (Domina), Ralph Ineson (Nosferatu), David Ajala (Star Trek: Discovery), Nina Barker-Francis (The Flash), Miya Ocego (I Hate Suzie), Elliot Cowan (The Crown), Shannon Watson, Arthur Hughes (Help), and Dominic Coleman (Paddington).
Amelia Bullmore in "The Jetty"
(Photo: BBC/Firebird Pictures/Matt Towers)
The Jetty is written and created by Cat Jones, who is known for her work on Harlots, EastEnders, and Waterloo Road. It is produced by Firebird Pictures, a BBC Studios label that previously worked with Coleman on dramas Wilderness and The Cry.
Ruby Stokes and Jenna Coleman in "The Jetty"
(Photo: BBC/Firebird Pictures/Ben Blackall)
"The Jetty is a story I’ve wanted to tell for a long time but it wasn’t until it found its champions at the fantastically write-friendly Firebird that it really came to life," Jones said in a statement when the series was first announced. "[It] feels like a total dream team...with Marialy Rivas to direct and the brilliant Jenna Coleman. I’ve no doubt audiences are going to be completely transfixed by her as Ember."
Marialy Rivas (Young & Wild) directs the four-part series. Executive producers are Elizabeth Kilgarriff, Sarah Wyatt, Jones, Rivas, and Coleman, alongside Jo McClellan for the BBC.
Filming on the series has wrapped, and The Jetty is slated to air later this year on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The show still doesn't have a U.S. distributor as yet, but given the American public's seemingly bottomless demand for crime shows, fingers crossed that it will manage to land one sooner rather than later.
