‘Payback’: ‘Line Of Duty’s Jed Mercurio Among Partners Behind ITV & Britbox International Crime Drama; Morven Christie, Peter Mullan & Prasanna Puwanarajah Lead Cast

deadline.com:

Jed Mercurio’s HTM Television’s is working on Payback, a six-part crime drama for the UK’s ITV and Britbox International. Morven Christie, Peter Mullan and Prasanna Puwanarajah are leading the cast, and screenwriter Debbie O’Malley is writing.Billed as a “compelling character-led series,” Payback will follows Lexie Noble, (Christie; The Bay, The A Word, Ordeal by Innocence), as she becomes entangled in a perilous police operation to topple a notorious crime lord, Cal Morris (Peter Mullan; The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Underground Railroad, Ozark).

Puwanarajah and Derek Riddell play financial investigators looking into Lexie’s husband Jared, who has been laundering Cal’s illegal earnings behind her back.HTM Television Creative Director Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty, Bodyguard) is working alongside Hill, his HTM partner Madonna Baptiste (DI Ray, Stephen, Black Mirror) and Diederick Santer on behalf of BritBox International on the series.

Mercurio will executive produce the series, alongside Baptiste, O’Malley and Santer. Jennie Darnell (Trigger Point, Line of Duty, Holby City) and Andrew Cumming (Clique, The Origin, Cold Feet) are the directors and Eric Coulter (The Control Room, Shetland, Bodyguard) is producing.ITV Head of Drama Polly Hill said: “Payback is a brilliant thriller which questions how well you know your partner and as the secrets come out, asks who you can trust.

Debbie has written compelling scripts that will keep the audience hooked and surprised. I’m delighted to be working with Morven Christie again, and of course Jed Mercurio and Madonna Baptiste at HTM Television.”Writer O’Malley has written for Call the Midwife, Humans and Harlots, and her three-part series The Guilty aired on ITV in