By Morgan Cormack

Published: Sunday, 11 December 2022 at 12:00 am


BBC One’s adaptation of JK Rowling’s Strike series, written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, will be returning to our screens this weekend.

In the fifth season, entitled Troubled Blood, fans will be reunited with series leads Holliday Grainger and Tom Burke, who are reprising their roles as Robin Ellacott and Cormoran Strike respectively.

In the lead up to the new season premiere, the series’ writer, Tom Edge, has revealed that Strike: Troubled Blood is a must-see for a variety of reasons.

“I think Troubled Blood is probably the most faithful adaptation to date,” he said. “We were able to preserve an awful lot in terms of both plot and the list of characters, which I was really pleased about.

“We come to the books as fans first and the overwhelming desire is to do them justice at the beginning, they have millions of fans as readers and we never want to disappoint them.”

The new season will see the leading duo tackle a difficult cold case, alongside Robin’s own messy divorce and shifting relationship dynamics with Strike.

Previously, Strike producer Alex Rendell revealed that “cracks start appearing” in Robin and Strike’s relationship, something that viewers can start to see in the new teaser clip for the upcoming episodes.

Similarly, Edge – who has once again adapted the script from a novel by JK Rowling – added that “there’s a lot going on” with both characters under the surface, even if their agency initially seems to be in a settled period.

It’s not just the personal factor that makes Troubled Blood different from its previous seasons. Grainger said that the cold case at hand – the 1974 disappearance of a doctor and mother – will push their skills as detectives to the limit.

“For Robin and Strike this case is quite different from the others, in that it’s digging into the past and trying to trace people that are hard to track down.”

Strike: Troubled Blood will premiere on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday 11th December, while Strike seasons 1-4 are available now on BBC iPlayerYou can purchase Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith on Amazon here.

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