Rob Lowe to star as "American fish out of water" in new ITV crime drama Wild Bill

The six-part series will see Hollywood star Lowe play high-flying US police chief Bill Hixon, who moves to Lincolnshire with his 14-year-old daughter to escape painful memories in their recent past.

He will also serve as executive producer on the new series.

According to a statement from ITV, Lowe's character is "whip-smart, acerbic and unstoppable," and he soon becomes chief constable of the East Lincolnshire police force.

“As an actor, Wild Bill is a larger than life character who’s outrageously articulate, has nothing to lose and revels in being an American fish out of water," Lowe said. "As an executive producer, I’m excited to work with such talented partners and to come back to work in the UK, which I always love.”

Wild Bill is created by David Griffiths, the writer behind Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot-em-up Collateral Damage and Tommy Lee Jones-led crime drama The Hunted.

Writers Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton, who will serve as showrunners, said: “Wild Bill gives us a chance to write about modern Britain and modern crime through unique eyes. We wrote this for Rob Lowe, for his smart-talking, anarchic, soulful voice. Displacing Rob in Brexit Britain and specifically in Boston, Lincolnshire allows us to tell stories that are leftfield and unexpected. We wanted to write something that couldn’t take place anywhere else, or at any other time.”

Filming is set to begin in November in London and Lincolnshire.