THERE will be plenty of drama in Bolton next week as the town provides the atmospheric backdrop to a dark thriller.

Shoppers and residents will find themselves doing a double take when they see Broadchurch actress Sarah Parish playing the role of a police officer in the town centre. Sarah, who is no stranger to Bolton having been filmed in Last Tango in Halifax in the borough, will lead the cast of a new ITV Encore thriller Bancroft.

Described as “dark and compelling”, the four-part thriller features the leading actress as a tortured female detective DCI Elizabeth Bancroft who is on track to become Detective Chief Superintendent. But she is a woman with dark secrets in her past. She is running an operation to bring down the pernicious and vicious Kamara gang, adopting dubious methods.

Joining Sarah is Faye Marsay of Game of Thrones and Black Mirror fame who takes on the role of DS Katherine Stevens, an ambitious fast-tracked recruit. When Katherine is assigned to a particular cold case, she unwittingly disturbs the ghosts of the past, shaking DCI Bancroft.

International actor, Linus Roache of Vikings and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will makes his return to British television. Linus plays Tim Frazer who was widowed when his wife, Laura, was murdered in their home 27 years previously, an unsolved crime.

Art Malik of Cold Feet and Indian Summers will also star in the drama.

The drama has been created and written by Kate Brooke — behind Mr Selfridge, Ice Cream Girls, The Making of a Lady.