BBC extends Northern Irish drama ‘Bloodlands’ into second season

Bloodlands

The BBC has extended crime drama Bloodlands, following the Jed Mercurio-produced show’s first season finale in the UK yesterday.

The second season will again come from writer Chris Brandon and is being exec produced by Line Of Duty’s Mercurio, with his recently launched firm Hat Trick Mercurio (HTM) Television attached to produce.

The show is set in Northern Ireland and stars James Nesbitt (The Missing) as a veteran detective with a personal connection to an infamous cold case that has just reopened.

It marked the first original drama commission for writer Brandon and the first drama for HTM, which is co-owned by Mercurio and UK-based Hat Trick Productions. Sales division Hat Trick International sells the show globally and struck an array of sales for the first season, with deals around the world. AMC-owned US streamer Acorn secured the first season for the US and Canada.

Brandon previously told TBI that the show was “at its heart, a universal story of what we will do for love when faced with extreme circumstances.”

He added: “Not all decisions will be the right ones, which gives us our conflict, and in a place where family strife and family loyalty are all, then larger themes of truth and justice become natural bedfellows to simpler impulses. In other words, what it is to love, and protect those that we love.”

Bloodlands launched with an average of 8.2 million viewers, making it the biggest new BBC drama launch since last June. In Northern Ireland, the premiere episode had a 52% consolidated audience share (live and time-shifted viewing), making it the highest BBC drama to launch locally on record.