Over the past decade, Northern Ireland has emerged as the setting of choice for hard-hitting cop shows and gritty crime dramas. Its grey skies, beautifully bleak landscapes and violent history combined to create a distinct sense of place and a noirish backdrop for series such as The Fall, Bloodlands, Marcella and, more recently, Blue Lights. 

But holding its own amid serial killer storylines and drug-dealing paramilitary plots is a crime show with a difference. The gently-paced Hope Street, a co-commission between BBC Daytime, BBC Northern Ireland and BritBox International, has been steadily winning audiences since its 2021 launch.

Back on our screens this autumn for a fourth series, Hope Street is Northern Ireland’s first returning daytime drama. Shot in the coastal town of Donaghadee, it is co-created by Belfast producer Paul Marquess, who previously worked on Hollyoaks and The Bill. Together with Donna Wiffen, his co-producer at production company Long Story TV, and local writer Susanne Farrell, he has conjured up a charming world of solvable crimes and warm characters.

But why set a cosy crime drama in Northern Ireland? “Precisely because I’m a contrary devil,” says Marquess, who first mooted the idea of setting a returning drama in Northern Ireland to industry insiders more than two decades ago.

“It wasn’t an obsession, but every time I was home in Belfast and the opportunity arose, I would suggest it.

“The Fall was great television, particularly series one – but God, it was grim. I wanted to show the Northern Ireland I know and create something that had international appeal, which cosy crime does in spades.”

Describing Hope Street as “the world’s slowest overnight success story”, Marquess says he’d almost given up on the show being made when it finally got the green light. Everything fell into place quickly – crew recruited, actors cast, storylines brought to life. Series one took viewers to the fictional town of Port Devine, the police station at its heart and the motley bunch of characters who live, love and work there. 

The aim of creating a crime drama that wasn’t about “serial killers or the Troubles” paid off, with that first series drawing in 1.7 million viewers across linear TV and iPlayer combined. It was recommissioned in 2022, and a third series in 2023 ran to 15 episodes. Now a further eight make up series four. 

A year after Hope Street launched, the BBC announced a new crime drama set in Belfast. Blue Lights, created by former journalists Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, made its debut in 2023 with a tale of rookie cops navigating the underbelly of the city. Its realistic, unflinching scripts won wide acclaim. But Marquess isn’t daunted and says there is no comparison between the shows. “You wait 5,000 years for a Northern Irish crime drama, then two come along at once! And, yes, it was hard not to think, ‘How’s that going to work?’,” he concedes. 

“But they are such different shows. Blue Lights is great, but it’s essentially about the legacy of the Troubles and where we are now. In a strange way, Hope Street is also about the Troubles – it’s just that we don’t mention it.” 

'We are the Good Friday Agreement of Northern Irish crime dramas'

While Blue Lights tackles Northern Ireland’s violent legacy head on, Hope Street does it in a subtle way, says ­Marquess. “We come at it from the angle: [of] ‘Yeah, but what if we all just got on?’ We’re the Good Friday Agreement of Northern Irish crime dramas!” 

Marquess puts the show’s success down to the warmth of the scripts, the coastal setting, the relatable characters and the “craic”. It has won fans across the Atlantic, and Donaghadee has become something of a tourist spot since the show’s launch. Marquess gauges the show’s success through the taxi drivers he meets: they started out sceptical but are now fans.

But Finnian Garbutt, who joined last year as PC Ryan Power (pictured on facing page, second from left), still finds it “surreal” when viewers approach him. “I also work in house removals and was in someone’s home one day when they had Hope Street on. It was strange seeing my face on the box. I’m still getting used to it.”

Northern Irish audiences are tough to please and not shy about telling you what they think. “But, thankfully,” Garbutt says, “the feedback so far has been 99% positive. You get fans who are almost in tears because they love Hope Street so much.”

Garbutt grew up 10 minutes down the road from Donaghadee and credits the setting and characters for the popularity of the show. He says the people portrayed on screen are instantly recognisable in any small town in Northern Ireland, and that familiar feeling keeps drawing viewers in. 

As someone from the post-Troubles generation, he feels that avoiding the topic brings a fresh perspective. “I don’t know much about the Troubles except what I’ve read or seen on TV, but to get young eyes on the show, it’s best to steer clear of those things,” he says. “Hope Street is very much a Northern Irish drama but the issues it deals with could be happening in America, Australia, Europe. That universal appeal has made it a success.” 

Belfast actor Kerri Quinn, who plays show stalwart Sgt Marlene Pettigrew, believes there is plenty of room for two Northern Irish crime dramas, particularly as they are so different. “Blue Lights is amazing but it’s much more hard-hitting, and the beauty of Hope Street lies in its simplicity,” she says. “There’s no mention of the Troubles or religion. It’s a post-Troubles daytime drama with relatable, unglamorous characters and no frills.” 

Quinn says the series reminds her of older episodes of Coronation Street when storylines mixed comedy and gravity, leaving viewers engrossed in romantic affairs and normal goings-on. “Hope Street has managed that fine balance between drama and humour perfectly and I’m proud to be part of it,” she says. 

This series sees Derry Girls star Tara Lynne O’Neill join the cast as Inspector Eve Dunlop. Marquess says he has no idea about the show’s future but is delighted with its success to date, at home and abroad. “I never imagined when we started that I’d get to 43 episodes, so my ambitions have been more than fulfilled,” he says. 

“We never thought when we started out that  we were going to win [lots of] Baftas. That’s not what it was about.  For me, it has been a subtle way of changing people’s perceptions about this place and the people here, and I hope that we’ve done that.”

The new series of Hope Street started on BBC iPlayer and BBC Northern Ireland on 28 October and on BBC One on 1 November. Series one, two and three are on BBC iPlayer.