Unforgotten Unveils Star-Studded Cast for Upcoming Season of ITV's Hit Crime Drama!

It’s one of TV’s longest-running dramas, but Unforgotten is on a mission to remain far from forgettable.

Filming has begun on series seven of the drama and the guest cast reads like a who’s who of British acting royalty.

Sanjeev Bhaskar and Sinead Keenan return as DI Sunny Khan and DCI Jess James for the new series of UnforgottenCredit: ITV Acting royalty joining the show includes All Creatures Great and Small legend Christopher TimothyCredit: Rex Lisa Maxwell – who is best known as beloved police drama The Bill’s Samantha Nixon – will also join the castCredit: Splash

I can reveal the glittering line-up is led by multi-award-winner , as well as legend , plus Paul Freeman, who was most recently seen in Netflix’s big-budget adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club.

But that’s not where the names end.

Call The Midwife’s Ann Mitchell will star, as well as Paul Brown, Paul Kaye, Adolescence’s Jo Hartley, Philip Martin Brown and Paula Wilcox.

And it’s a return to the beat for – who is best known as beloved drama The Bill’s Samantha Nixon – who also joins the ITV cast.

They all join Sophie Rundle and Julian Rhind-Tutt, who have already been announced.

And and return as DI Sunny Khan and DCI Jess James for the series, as the team investigates a complex and emotionally-charged cold case.

A source said: “The last series of launched with 9.2million viewers last February – which are mind blowing figures for a drama in this day and age.

“So it’s perhaps unsurprising Mainstreet Pictures have been able to amass such an ensemble cast.

“It reads like a who’s who of acting royalty with some dizzying star power in that line-up.”

Paul Brown, above, will star alongside Paul Kaye, Adolescence’s Jo Hartley, Philip Martin Brown and Paula WilcoxCredit: Rex Features

The series was the biggest returning drama of last year and averaged 8.5million viewers across its run.

This time the drama opens with the discovery of human remains in the crawl space of a house in Ladbroke Grove, London.

Early forensic analysis suggests the body is that of a child, which has been deliberately concealed for several years.

But the takes a deeply personal turn for the team when a match links the victim to a previously closed historic case.

This compels Sunny and Jess to revisit the original inquiry and unravel the truth behind a decades-old crime.

Huw Kennair Jones, Drama Commissioner at ITV, said: “Once again Unforgotten has a compelling set of characters interwoven in an intriguing and enticing story, one that will keep Jess and Sunny and the audience guessing until the very end.”

One thing we won’t have to wonder is if the acting will be any good.

Robson Greene and Jason Watkins will be back for a second series of Channel 5’s cat and mouse thriller The Game.

It’ll follow detective Huw a year after survival serial killer Patrick’s brutal stabbing – but he’s far from out of the woods. They will begin filming soon.

Special date for Winona

Winona Ryder leads a wave of stars joining Netflix’s Wednesday as series three begins filming in IrelandCredit: Getty

Winona Ryder is joining hit Wednesday for series three, fresh from wrapping on .

The movie star isn’t the only newcomer, though, with Chris Sarandon, ’ Noah Taylor, Oscar Morgan and Kennedy Moyer also swelling the ranks on the twisted reimagining of The Addams Family story as it begins production in .

Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar said: “It’s our dark delight to fling open Nevermore Academy’s gates once more as we begin production on season three.

“This season we welcome new students, new teachers, and excavate some long-rotting Addams Family secrets. Don’t say you weren’t warned.”

Eva Green is also joining as Morticia Addams’ sister Ophelia Frump alongside established cast and .

Beeb to put ‘D’ in drama

Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, the writers of The Salisbury Poisonings and Blue Lights, are behind new drama D-NoticeCredit: BBC

The makers of and Blue Lights are behind a new drama for the .

D-Notice is a British political thriller set in the world of investigative journalism which looks at the balance of truth and power in the UK.

That’s just one of three exciting new commissions by the Beeb.

Also in the works is six-parter Shy & Lola, a darkly comic story that follows two women who are forced to become allies when a murder entangles them in the criminal underworld operating in a small coastal town in the North of England.

The Night Manager’s Hayley Squires stars as Shy whilst Bel Powley is Lola.

Filming is set to begin this spring in and around Hull and Leeds.

And also to come is 1536, a series based on Ava Pickett’s award-winning play set in the heart of Tudor England against the backdrop of Anne Boleyn’s arrest.