Clunes will reprise his role as the former London Metropolitan Police detective, DCI Colin Sutton, this time in pursuit of a notorious serial rapist who has been terrorising elderly people in south east London for 17 years.

Based on Sutton’s real life diaries, the series will recount the steps he took to serve justice.

Writer Ed Whitmore also wrote the first series, which told the real life story of the murder Amelie Delagrange on Twickenham Green in 2004.

Executive producer, Philippa Braithwaite, said: “We are very pleased that ITV have given us the opportunity to dramatize another important case that Colin Sutton was involved in just before his retirement from the Force.

“This inquiry has a very different emphasis to the Bellfield case; the victims were elderly and the crimes were unsolved for many years.

She added: “The drama explores how Colin came late to the inquiry and helped solve it in a matter of weeks, taking an incredibly dangerous serial rapist off the streets.”

Manhunt II: The Night Stalker has begun filming and will air on ITV next year.