Looking For A New Detective Drama To Binge? Look No Further Than BBC’s Rebus

Love detective dramas? The BBC is bringing its rebooted version of early 2000s drama Rebus to our screens later this year, with Outlander star Richard Rankin set to play the titular Scottish detective in the earlier years of his career.

It joins other mystery crime dramas coming out in the next few months like Ludwig, Sugar, and Under The Bridge, and the six-parter will follow Rebus after a brush with death with a notorious gangster in Edinburgh. Here’s what to know…

What is Rebus about?

This new incarnation of Rebus reboots the older ITV series starring Ken Stott and John Hannah, which in turn was based on the Inspector Rebus novels written by Ian Rankin. BBC’s version features a younger, reimagined Rebus working as a Detective Sergeant, drawn into a “violent criminal conflict” as the series unfolds. Rebus’ brother, Michael (Brian Ferguson), a military man, “crosses the line into criminality”, turning the case into a personal one for John. Now he’s stuck between wanting to protect and help his brother, and the responsibility of having to bring him to justice.

Meanwhile, John is experiencing something of a mid-life crisis, having survived an encounter with an infamous gangster and finding his job increasingly controlled by corporate technocrats causing him to lose passion for it. Not only that, but Rebus is also having an affair that he, deep down, knows can’t continue. His ex-wife Rhona (Amy Manson) has remarried, and his daughter Sammy (Mia McKenzie) has a new father figure in life. With all of this on his plate, and a difficult case to navigate, John wonders if he can remain either a family man or a police officer, in a world that seems to be turning increasingly grim.

Who else stars, and is there a release date?

The Edinburgh-set series was filmed around Scotland last year, and is set to also star Lucie Shorthouse (Line of Duty) as Rebus’ partner on the force DCI Siobhan Clarke, Neshla Caplan (The Rig), Noof Ousellam (Vigil), Stuart Bowman (The Serpent), Caroline Lee Johnson (Ridley) and Sean Buchanan (Mary Queen of Scots). The upcoming series has yet to receive a trailer but has released a first-look image of Rankin in character as Rebus. There’s no definite release date, but the BBC has said that the show will be arriving this spring.