Shetland Star’s Four-Part BBC Crime Drama Is a Dark, Twisty Binge You Can Finish in One Night

Two girls vanish from a small Derbyshire town, the police quickly arrest a suspect — and DI Helen Weeks is stunned to discover that the man in custody is married to her childhood best friend.

That unsettling premise drives In the Dark, the four-part BBC crime drama starring MyAnna Buring alongside Ben Batt, Ashley Walters, Jamie Sives, Jessica Gunning and Georgia Tennant. Originally broadcast on BBC One in 2017, the series adapts two Mark Billingham novels and was written for television by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst.

With four episodes running at roughly an hour each, it is also the kind of compact crime mystery that can comfortably be finished over a single evening.

A Missing-Girls Case Forces Helen Weeks Back Into Her Past

MyAnna Buring leads the drama as DI Helen Weeks, a driven Manchester detective who has recently discovered she is pregnant.

Her personal uncertainty is interrupted by disturbing news from Polesford, the rural Derbyshire town where she grew up. Two girls have disappeared, and the man arrested in connection with their abduction is Stephen Bates — husband of Helen’s childhood best friend, Linda.

Helen has spent years avoiding Polesford, but seeing Linda at the center of an escalating media storm draws her back home.

She travels there with her partner and fellow detective Paul Hopkins, played by Ben Batt, determined to support Linda and understand what has happened. Yet returning home also means confronting memories Helen would rather have left buried.

The central question quickly becomes more complicated than whether police have arrested the right man.

Local DI Tim Cornish, played by Ashley Walters, is under considerable pressure to resolve the disappearance and believes Stephen is responsible. Helen is far less convinced.

Her involvement puts her between the investigating officers and the prime suspect’s family, while her determination to help Linda raises another mystery: why is Helen so committed to a friendship she has apparently avoided for years?

The Investigation Reopens Secrets From Helen’s Childhood

In the Dark is not simply a missing-person mystery.

Helen’s return to Polesford gradually exposes unresolved events from her childhood, adding another layer to an investigation already filled with suspicion.

Linda is someone Helen once knew intimately, yet Helen has barely spoken about her to Paul. As the case develops, it becomes increasingly apparent that the two women’s shared history still carries considerable emotional weight.

That connection between past and present gives the first half of the drama its tension. Helen isn’t approaching Polesford purely as a police officer; she is returning as someone whose own history is tangled up with the people and place surrounding the investigation.

Buring described Helen at the time as a detective intensely committed to uncovering the truth despite carrying a secret of her own. She also explained that the opening two episodes force Helen to confront events from her past that she has tried to bury.

The Four Episodes Actually Tell Two Connected Crime Stories

One of the more unusual aspects of In the Dark is its structure.

Rather than stretching one investigation across the entire four-hour run, the BBC series draws from two separate Mark Billingham novels featuring Helen Weeks: Time of Death and In the Dark.

The opening two episodes are based on Time of Death and concentrate on Helen’s return to Polesford and the disappearance of the girls.

The final two episodes shift the story back toward Manchester and adapt material from In the Dark, plunging Helen into another investigation after a gangland shooting.

That structure gives the series the feeling of two compact mysteries connected by the same central character and her increasingly complicated personal life.

It also allows the drama to move from the claustrophobic atmosphere of a rural community filled with old secrets into Manchester’s criminal underworld.

MyAnna Buring Leads an Impressive Crime-Drama Cast

Buring is at the center of all four episodes as Helen, balancing her detective work with pregnancy and a personal life that becomes increasingly difficult to separate from the cases she investigates.

The actress will be familiar to viewers from productions including Ripper Street and The Witcher, but In the Dark gives her a demanding lead role built around a detective whose professional determination often clashes with what she is dealing with privately.

She is surrounded by a particularly recognizable supporting cast.

Ben Batt plays Helen’s partner and fellow detective Paul Hopkins, while Ashley Walters appears as Polesford detective Tim Cornish.

Jamie Sives, familiar to Shetland viewers, plays DCI Jack Gosforth, while Jessica Gunning appears as DC Sophie Carson. Georgia Tennant plays Helen’s sister Jenny.

David Leon, Matt King, Clive Wood, Emma Fryer and Pearce Quigley also feature across the four episodes.

The Writer Behind the Drama Has Strong Crime-Thriller Credentials

The adaptation was written by Danny Brocklehurst, whose television work stretches across crime, comedy and character drama.

For In the Dark, Brocklehurst brought together Billingham’s two Helen Weeks novels rather than adapting only one book.

The result premiered on BBC One on July 11, 2017 and concluded on August 1, with directors Gilles Bannier and Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen each handling two episodes. Each installment runs for approximately 58 minutes.

Brocklehurst has since become particularly familiar to streaming audiences through his collaborations with Harlan Coben, including Netflix adaptations such as Fool Me Once and Missing You.

That connection makes In the Dark an especially easy recommendation for viewers drawn to compact British mysteries built around crimes that expose secrets from the characters’ pasts.

Critics Found Plenty to Like in Its Dark Atmosphere

Reviews were mixed rather than universally glowing, but several critics highlighted the drama’s atmosphere and central premise.

The Telegraph awarded the opening episode three stars and praised its tension and intriguing setup, particularly Helen’s position between the police investigation and the family of its main suspect.

The Guardian acknowledged that the drama used several recognizable crime-TV conventions, including the detective returning to a troubled hometown, but found the opening episode fast-moving, thoughtful and skillfully constructed.

A later review of the finale also singled out Buring’s performance, arguing that the actress gave Helen depth and credibility while the concluding episode explored the emotional consequences of gang crime, grief and loneliness.

The series currently holds a 50% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, although that figure is based on only four critic reviews, making it a very small sample.

Why In the Dark Works as a One-Night Binge

The biggest advantage In the Dark has for viewers discovering it today is its brevity.

There are no eight or ten episodes to work through and little commitment required before the story starts delivering answers. The four-part format effectively provides two linked investigations while continuing Helen’s personal story throughout.

The opening mystery immediately gives viewers several reasons to keep watching: two missing girls, a suspect whose guilt isn’t certain, a detective returning to the hometown she deliberately abandoned and a childhood friendship carrying secrets that have never fully disappeared.

Then, just as the first investigation reaches its conclusion, the series changes direction and sends Helen into an entirely different case.

For fans of British detective dramas — particularly viewers who enjoy Shetland, Mark Billingham adaptations or Danny Brocklehurst’s Harlan Coben thrillers — In the Dark offers a dark, compact mystery with enough twists and personal secrets to fill a single evening.

All four episodes are available on BBC iPlayer, while In the Dark is also scheduled to stream free on U from Saturday, April 18.