Olwyn Hocking reviews a pre-taste of a new BBC drama, set on Tyneside.

No it's not sponsored by Newcastle's latest urban executive flats. This trendy title is the name of the newest northern drama on the BBC.

The revelation of the series' title was just one of many revelations a packed RTS event learnt from Zenith drama head Adrian Bate.

This "flashing blue lights" cop series is based on a simple TV image seen by writer Tim Pregar some years ago of the sole night detective arriving at crimes committed in the wee small hours.

It's also a mainstream drama with a lead black actor. He's in the middle of three generations facing very different threats and opportunities.

And it pushes other boundaries which weren't entirely planned! Adrian revealed that he learned with just two weeks to go that his leading lady Dervla Kirwen was pregnant. Scripts and storylines had to be junked, to be replaced by new themes of single parenthood and what this means for careers and relationships. Adrian (and the audience!) learnt a lot about insurance costs as well!

Like its namesake property development, is the drama bringing loadsa new money into the region? More than £1m, said Adrian W 60% of the crew were local people. He was keen to make opportunities for people from the small minority ethnic population on Tyneside, and created a traineeship when he found the skills weren't available. Local agencies had been extremely helpful.

But post production is based in London. Adrian dangled the bait… if Series 2 is commissioned, he'd like to spend even more of the budget in the region. So several reasons why we'll be watching Series 1 and its ratings with particularly close interest. The on-air date is expected to be the spring.

By Olwyn Hocking

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