A Taste For Murder: This Sunsoaked Thriller Will Air On ITV This Week

Looking for a new crime drama to binge? Don’t miss A Taste for Murder, a new six-part thriller set to kick off on ITV1 this week, penned by the screenwriter behind ITV’s Hotel Portofino (2022–present) and Channel 4’s Patience (2024–present), Matt Baker.

Whisking us off to sunsoaked Capri, here’s everything you need to know before you tune in.

A Taste For Murder: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

DCI Joe Mottram (Warren Brown) in A Taste for Murder. (Eagle Eye/ITV)

The Plot

A Taste for Murder centres on DCI Joe Mottram (Warren Brown), a recently bereaved police officer struggling to connect with his teenage daughter Angelica (Beau Gadsdon) in the wake of his wife’s (her mother’s) sudden death. Seeking reprieve, Joe whisks the pair off to Capri, where his late wife’s family run a beachside restaurant, Da Vinale’s.

But then a body turns up – a British tourist dead at the foot of an iconic landmark. As a cop, Joe is naturally curious. But when local Police Inspector Lara Sarrancino (Cristiana Dell’Anna) shows up at Da Vinale’s and it turns out one of his in-laws’ relatives is implicated in the crime, Joe is pulled deeper into the case. Is murder hiding between the menu’s delicious dishes?

Watch the trailer below for a taste…

Inspector Lara Sarrancino (Cristiana Dell’Anna) in A Taste for Murder. (Eagle Eye/ITV)

Where Was It Filmed?

While A Taste for Murder was partly filmed on location in Italy, filming mainly took place in Croatia, which is a common dupe for the neighbouring Mediterranean country. Filming centered on Opatija, Volosko and Labin in particular, and took place in March 2025.

Northern Croatian coastal town Opatija doubles as the sun-drenched Italian island where all the action takes place. This is where the family taverna is located – a former fish restaurant with a faded charm, zhuzhed up slightly for filming. Because it doubles almost as a police precinct in A Taste for Murder, this location was key to the series. ‘The moment the team came back from the recce and showed us the location, we knew we had a show,’ the series producer Jo McGrath says. ‘It’s a beautiful location but abandoned and a little worn. The vista and the view were everything we had envisaged for the show.’

For a peek behind the curtain, we are also told the sunsoaked setting of A Taste for Murder is slightly deceiving. With filming taking place in early spring, we’re told temperatures barely crept above freezing, with director Jonathan Jones confirming ‘it was three degrees and the cast were not dressed for the cold’.

Series creator and writer Matt Baker is no stranger to sunsoaked settings. His debut solo screenwriting project was Hotel Portofino, a historical drama which centres on the aristocratic British Ainsworth family who relocate to the Italian Riviera to open a hotel in the 1920s.

Elena Da Vinale (Phyllis Logan) in A Taste for Murder. (Eagle Eye/ITV)

The Cast

A Taste for Murder is led by British actor Warren Brown as DCI Joe Mottram who, fittingly, is best known for his performances in police dramas. You might recognise him from Luther where he played DS Justin Ripley or as Sergeant Mac in Strike Back: Retribution, though most recently he has starred in Ten Pound Poms on BBC One.

He is joined by rising star Beau Gadsdon as his on-screen daughter Angelica, having previously starred in A Gentleman in Moscow. Downton Abbey‘s Phyllis Logan also stars, joined by a cast of Italian actors to fit with the Capri setting.

The full cast is as follows:

• Warren Brown as DCI Joe Mottram
• Phyllis Logan as Elena Da Vinale
• Beau Gadsdon as Angelica
• Cristiana Dell’Anna as Inspector Lara Sarrancino
• Urbano Barberini as Gennaro Da Vinale
• Alessandro Fella as Luca
• Marouane Zotti as DI Gianni Gallo
• Gaia Scodellaro as Daria
• Pasquale Esposito as Commissario Curti
• Alessandro Bedetti as Daniele Russo
• Giuseppe Bonifati as Andrea Carlotti
• Bruno Bilotta as Rocco Di Biasi
• Hattie Gotobed as Emily O’Brien

Inspector Lara Sarrancino (Cristiana Dell’Anna) in A Taste for Murder. (Eagle Eye/ITV)

Is It Based On A Book?

A Taste for Murder is based on the novel of the same name penned by Baker, the man behind the television series. Published at the beginning of the year by Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin, with the tag line ‘the sun is hot, the Aperol is chilled, the murder is ice cold…’, Baker’s debut novel is 400 pages long and has been praised for its deft exploration of grief, balanced with the criminal underbelly of Capri and delectable descriptions of food.

Buy Now