ITV has greenlit a six-part crime drama titled The Dark, adapted from GR Halliday’s debut novel From the Shadows. The series will be written by Matt Hartley and produced by Ben Stephenson’s Poison Pen Studios, which sits under the ITV Studios umbrella.
This is the second ITV commission for Poison Pen since the label’s launch in early 2023. The series will shoot in and around Glasgow during 2025 and is backed by Screen Scotland through National Lottery funding. ITV Studios will handle global distribution.
The Dark introduces DI Monica Kennedy, a complex and battle-tested detective investigating a string of murders in the Scottish Highlands. When the body of a young man is found staged in the wilderness, Kennedy is drawn into a case that exposes the fractures of a rural community under siege. As the killings escalate, so do the pressures on Kennedy’s personal judgement, with past trauma threatening to cloud her ability to track a calculating killer.
The series adds another contemporary psychological thriller to ITV’s slate, leaning into atmospheric crime storytelling set outside the metropolitan centres. The commissioning move follows ITV’s continued investment in regional crime drama, which has seen strong returns in both domestic viewership and international sales.
Hartley will executive produce alongside Stephenson, Preethi Mavahalli, Luke Woellhaf, and Fern McCauley. Matt Brown will produce, with Lena Rae and Nessah Muthy joining the writing team. Gilles Bannier will direct and serve as an executive producer.
The deal positions The Dark within ITV’s broader push to expand its premium crime offering through in-house and affiliated studios. It also reinforces Poison Pen’s positioning as a drama label focused on high-stakes, character-led storytelling with global appeal.
