Will There Be A Third Series Of Ridley?

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Adrian Dunbar’s detective drama is back for series 2 – but can we expect a third installment?

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Having aired on PBS in the States back in 2024, Adrian Dunbar’s police procedural drama Ridley is finally back on UK screens for a second series, airing Sunday nights on ITV1 (or watch the series in full on ITVX). Reprising his role as retired copper DI Alex Ridley, it’s familiar ground for the Irish star who is best known for leading AC-12 as Superintendent Ted Hastings in Jed Mercurio’s hit BBC drama Line of Duty. Ridley sees a plethora of intriguing cases and more picturesque backdrops as Ridley and his former protegee DI Carol Farman solve knotty cases in and around the fictional countryside village of Framley (with filming taking place in real village Mossley on the Manchester side of the Pennines).

Written and created by Paul Matthew Thompson (one of the lead writers on long-running northern detective drama, Vera), Ridley series 2 is once again made up of four episodes, each tracing a new crime, including a jewellery heist that turns violent, the discovery of a decomposed body, an illegal rave turned fatal and a mother gone missing.

If you’ve already raced through series 2, we’re sure one question remains: will there be a third series of Ridley? Here’s what we know.

ADRIAN DUNBAR as Ridley in ITV’s Ridley. (© ITV)

Ridley Series 3: Everything We Know So Far

While there’s no word just yet on whether Ridley series 3 will get the greenlight, we know the core cast are keen to reprise their roles. Speaking to C&TH, Bronagh Waugh (who plays Alex Ridley’s former protegee DI Carol Farman), confirmed ‘there are plenty of [plot] ideas if we are lucky enough to get a third series’.

‘I think it would be really interesting to keep delving into the detectives’ private lives as well as the cases, so let’s see what happens…’ she added.

The main spanner in the works would be the cast’s schedules, especially amid rumours lead star Dunbar will be reprising his role for an unexpected Line of Duty renewal. According to Dunbar himself, having met with series creator Jed Mercurio and leading co-stars Martin Compston and Vicky McClure, ‘It is down to the BBC to make an announcement, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that next year we’ll be working on a new series [of Line of Duty].’ If so, Dunbar will be booked up for a big chunk of the year. But since he is the lead star in Ridley too, we hope all of the moving parts can align to allow both to go ahead.

BRONAGH WAUGH as DI Carol Farman in Ridley series 2 episode 4. (© ITV)

Speaking on her experiences filming series 2, Bronagh shared the cast and crew have ‘all got to know each other really well over the last two series’, adding ‘it was an absolute joy and honour to don the rubber raincoat and boots once more!’

Following on from the trend set by Ridley series 1, series 2 traces a new case with each episode, with Ridley and Farman binding together to weed out the culprit. Lead star Dunbar notes the fact that ‘every episode is different’ as a ‘great strength of the show’. ‘When you’ve got that feature length format, you can do a little bit more,’ he tells ITV. ‘You can take something that would be a one-hour telly show into a film.

‘I think audiences like that,’ Dunbar adds. ‘We’re all always in the same locale, but the episodes, and where it takes us, and who we end up meeting changes. It’s an interesting slice of life. I think viewers are interested in the ordinary goings on of everybody’s lives, and how life looks up on the Moors. It’s a completely different world up there, and we use that a lot.’

If series 3 goes ahead, we imagine the episodes would follow a similar pattern of solving a new case every episode. And with this comes a whole host of new faces – though we’re sure Dunbar and Waugh would return to their leading roles, along with Terence Maynard as DCI Paul Goodwin, George Bukhari as DC Darren Lakhan, and Georgie Glen as pathologist Dr Wendy Newstone.

Does this rotating cast of characters change the vibe on set? ‘One of the things I try to do for all the guest actors is make them feel really welcome and comfortable,’ Bronagh tells C&TH. ‘It can be intimidating coming into a team as the “newbie”, so we want to make sure everyone feels looked after and has a great time. It’s such a treat to watch and work with these incredible actors who come in and do such fantastic, intense work for their episode.’

Meanwhile, as Bronagh points out, there’s always more to learn about Ridley and Farman’s private lives…