Shaun Evans to Lead New ITV Series 'Betrayal'

After spending over a decade playing Endeavour Morse, a role that will almost certainly define his career, Shaun Evans has been signing onto projects where his role goes against the hero type. His most recent series, Until I Kill You, starred him playing real-life serial killer John Sweeney. Now, ITV has announced it has commissioned a new show starring Evans, an espionage thriller called Betrayal, where, at first glance, Evans is returning to play good guy law enforcement. However, a closer inspection reveals that Evans' new character is more of an anti-hero.

The project comes from Mammoth Screen, from an idea from screenwriter David Eldridge, who also wrote The Scandalous Lady W, which also co-starred Evans. Betrayal features Evans in the lead role as MI-5 operative John Hughes, who has spent the last two decades fighting the war on terror and foiling some of the most significant terrorist plots on U.K. soil. But the world has changed post-pandemic, both in the office, with new, progressive attitudes, and outside, where the national security threats exist in virtual space.

Hughes is caught up in a plot that paints him as a trigger-happy racist cop while struggling with a new female replacement he once would have thought nothing of seducing. Can Hughes convince his colleagues he's not the dinosaur he appears to be? Or will he fail to adjust to the times?

Here's the upcoming series' official synopsis:

On a hunch, John meets Ehsan, a British Iranian man with links to the Manchester gangland who claims he has intelligence about a plot on UK soil. Before he can share intel, a lone gunman executes Ehsan, and John impulsively kills the assassin in retaliation. This triggers a chain of events that puts John in direct collision with his superiors, who are furious that he appears to have got involved in a Manchester gang turf war. John thinks there's more to it than that and starts digging into Ehsan’s past. He knows he’ll have to redeem himself if he’s to save his career and reputation, all the while struggling with his own mental health after having killed a man.

John’s efforts to save his career and marriage are also tested by Mehreen, an intelligence operative brought in to take over John’s duties on the Iran desk. Their connection is electric, and John must wrestle with temptations his younger self would readily have surrendered to. Struggling with his own demons, his love for his family, and his complicated loyalty to the institution he’s been part of for over 20 years, John sets out to find the truth of the explosive security threat to the UK before it's too late.

Thus far, Evans is the only cast member attached to Betrayal. More will be announced in due course when filming commences in 2025. Eldridge and Evans are executive producers on the series alongside Chief Creative Officer Damien Timmer and Tom Leggett for Mammoth Screen. The series does not yet have an American distributor, but that is also expected to change by the time cameras start rolling.

Betrayal is expected to arrive on ITV in late 2025.