The Tower future revealed as ITV confirms bad news for season 4
DS Sarah Collins won't be solving any more mysteries.
ITV drama The Tower will not be returning for a fourth season, a spokesperson for the channel has revealed.
The police procedural, which starred Gemma Whelan, Tahirah Sharif and Jimmy Akingbola, previously aired its third run across one week in September – but it looks like that will be the last we see of Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins for now.
"The Tower was much loved by the audience who watched the drama but the viewing figures for the last series did not reach expectations so sadly we won’t be recommissioning," a spokesperson told The Sun.
The show was based on the novels by Kate London and followed DS Collins and her rookie partner Lizzie Adama (Sharif) as they solved a number of grisly crimes.
Season 3 – which was adapted by screenwriter Patrick Harbinson from London’s third novel Gallowstree Lane – picked up almost two years after the season 2 finale and found Sarah investigating the stabbing of a teenager.
This brought her face to face with Lizzie, who was doing her best to manage being a detective and a mother, while she also came into conflict with DI Kieran Shaw (Emmett J Scanlan), who was running an undercover police task force set up to bring down South London drug kingpin Shakiel Oliver (Daniel Adegboyega).
The cancellation will come as bad news for those involved in the show, many of whom had previously indicated they would be keen to keep the series going for another run.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press for a Q&A ahead of the release of season 3, Harbinson said he was "absolutely" hoping to adapt another one of London's novels.
He said: "I’m already writing the first episode of The Tower 4 just to show to ITV that we’re ready to go, because Kate [London] has already written a brilliant fourth novel, The Misper."
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Meanwhile, Whelan added: "Yes, please. I think we’re all so keen, I’m trying to send all the thoughts to ITV and all the people to tune in, it’s going to be numbers.
"I think, as many people have said, this has grown so beautifully as a series, and I think series 3 is better than ever.
"It’s easy to talk in platitudes, but we’re really into the stories, we’re into important things that we’re talking about, like knife crime. Every time we do a series, it seems like such an urgent message that we’re giving, so it’s a public service as well.
"So [we] would definitely like to do more, yes please."
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The Tower seasons 1-3 are available to watch in full on ITVX.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
