By Joe Julians

Published: Wednesday, 13 October 2021 at 12:00 am


ITV’s next big crime drama is on the way and it looks to be quite the event with the broadcast airing all four episodes over the course of a week.

The Long Call is a new detective drama starring Ben Aldridge (Our Girl) and is adapted from the novel of the same name that was penned by Ann Cleeves. It promises a great murder mystery, while also giving us a lead character with more than his fair share of baggage to deal with.

But who else is in The Long Call, and when do we get to watch it? Read on for that information and more!

The Long Call release date

ITV are banking on this being a bit hit and they have scheduled it accordingly. All four episodes of The Long Call will air on the the channel across a single week – the first episode will premiere on Monday, 25th October and the series will conclude on Thursday, 28th October.

Episodes will also be available to stream on both the ITV Hub and BritBox straight after broadcast.

The Long Call cast

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Ben Aldridge plays Detective Inspector Matthew Venn, who has returned to live in a small community in North Devon with his husband, Jonathan (Declan Bennett) – Aldridge is a busy guy at the moment, also playing the role of Thomas Wayne in Batman prequel series Pennyworth which is still awaiting word on a season three. He previously appeared in Fleabag and had a memorable lead role on Our Girl.

Ben is joined by some talented people too: Juliet Stevenson (One of Us), Pearl Mackie (Doctor Who), Martin Shaw (Inspector George Gently) and Anita Dobson (EastEnders) will all be sharing the screen with him in major roles. ,

What is The Long Call about?

An adaptation of the Ann Cleeves novel of the same name, The Long Call is about a detective, DI Matthew Venn, investigating a murder while at the same time coming to terms with some dramatic and painful events from his own past. He and his husband make a return to the small North Devon community he grew up in, but he was rejected by his family when he last saw them.

And it is not just his family, his old church have turned their back on him too, so it makes things very awkward for him when he returns to attend his father’s funeral. Add to his troubles a murder case he has to look into and it would appear that Matthew will be very busy over the course of the four episodes.

The Long Call trailer

At the time of writing, no trailer has been released for The Long Call but considering how close we are to the start date, we imagine one will be dropping any day now. As soon as it does, we’ll have it right here for you.

The Long Call starts on Monday, 25th October at 9pm on ITV. Visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight, or check out the rest of our Drama coverage.