The Responder

Over the past year or so I’m sure many of you reading this have enjoyed the likes of Blue Lights, The Responder, Happy Valley and The Way. All huge BBC dramas. They have something else in common – they’re rooted in towns and cities across the UK.

This is no accident. In March 2021, we laid out our “Across the UK” blueprint for the BBC’s biggest transformation in decades, designed to move more of our programming and decision-making across the UK. The goal: to bring us closer to our audiences.

Tony Schumacher is following in the footsteps of fellow Liverpool TV dramatists Alan Bleasdale and Jimmy McGovern – literally so in the case of the Boys from the Blackstuff writer.

Schumacher, who enjoyed huge success with BBC One cop series The Responder last year, grew up in Huyton on the outskirts of Liverpool.

The Responder

BBC One

Monday, 9pm

Freeman stars as Chris, a crisis stricken and morally compromised urgent response officer working a series of night shifts in Liverpool.

As Chris struggles to keep both his personal and professional life in line, he is forced to take on a new rookie partner, Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo, Timewasters).

After getting off to a rocky start, the pair must learn to work together if they have any hope of surviving in the high-pressure, relentless world of Liverpool’s criminal underbelly.