The final episode of ITV’s The Long Call aired tonight, with fans finally getting to the bottom of Simon Walden’s murder.
Adapted from the Ann Cleeves (Vera, Shetland) novel of the same name, the detective drama stars Ben Aldridge as Matthew Venn, a detective who moves back to his childhood town and comes face-to-face with the religious family that cast him aside whilst investigating the death of a mysterious resident.
With the likes of Pearl Mackie and Juliet Stephenson bolstering the Long Call cast, the series was a hit for ITV, particularly thanks to the North Devon locations where The Long Call was filmed – but will it be back for another season?
Read on for everything we know so far about The Long Call season two.
**Spoilers ahead for The Long Call season one**
Will The Long Call return for season 2?
ITV has not officially announced whether detective Matthew Venn will be returning to our screens in a second season of The Long Call – however, considering how popular the drama has been, we’d surprised if he didn’t come back.
As for what would happen in a second season, while The Long Call is based off of an Ann Cleeves book of the same name, there is another book in the Matthew Venn franchise that could be adapted for season two.
Ann Cleeves novel The Heron’s Cry, which was published this year, follows Venn once again as he’s called out to investigate another murder in a rural part of North Devon.
With more source material to work with, there’s no reason why The Long Call couldn’t be renewed for a season two – finger’s crossed ITV recommissions to detective drama!
The Long Call season 2 release date
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As ITV has not officially renewed The Long Call for a second season, we don’t have a release date yet – but that doesn’t stop us from taking an educated guess at when we might expect the drama’s return.
The first season was commissioned back in November 2020 and began filming on location in North Devon in April 2021, which means the whole process from script to screen took just under a year.
If the same time scale is followed for season two, then the earliest we can expect The Long Call’s return to be is October 2022.
The Long Call season 2 cast
If The Long Call is renewed for a second season, we’re almost certainly going to see Ben Aldridge return as detective Matthew Venn, as well as Pearl Mackie as DS Jen Rafferty and Dylan Edwards as DC Rosa Pritchard.
As it’s likely that season two will focus on a new case with a new line-up of suspects, we won’t know until closer to the time which stars will be joining the cast – however, it’s possible that Juliet Stevenson could return to play Matthew’s mother Dorothy, who’d become the leader of the Barum Brethren following Dennis and Grace’s arrests.
The Long Call season 2 plot
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In the season one finale, Matthew and his team got to the bottom of Simon Walden’s death, learning that it was Grace (Anita Dobson) who killed Simon after being convinced to do so by her abusive husband Dennis (Martin Shaw).
While season two – if commissioned by ITV – is likely to look at a new case, we have an idea of what it could be as Ann Cleeves published the second book in the Matthew Venn series earlier this year.
The Heron’s Cry follows Matthew as he’s sent to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists, where Dr Nigel Yeo – a close friend of Matthew’s husband Jonathan – has been stabbed.
According to the book description, Matthew can tell the murder has been staged and that the murder weapon was a shard of glass from one of Yao’s daughter Eve’s broken vases.
“Then another body is found – killed in a similar way. Matthew finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case hat is dangerously close to home,” the description reads.
The Long Call is available to stream on ITV Hub. Visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight, or check out the rest of our Drama coverage.