The Tower: Release date, cast and trailer for new ITV drama

The new series might be the latest in a long line of ITV crime dramas following police procedurals, from Grace to Marcella, but ahead of The Tower’s debut, cast member Tahirah Sharif (The Haunting of Bly Manor) promised that the series would be different from “other police dramas” and shine a light on police officers' "unconscious biases".

Sharif, who plays PC Lizzie Adama told RadioTimes.com and other press that the show will offer something new and "humanise police officers and show that they make mistakes, or let emotion[s] lead them at times, or let their own kind of, I guess unconscious biases lead them in different ways”.

For everything you need to know about The Tower, which comes courtesy of Windhover Films and Mammoth Screen, including its release date, cast and trailer, read on.

The Tower release date

The Tower kicked off on Monday 8th November at 9pm, as DS Sarah Collins rose to the challenge of solving the show's central mystery – what happened in the run-up to the tower block fall?

The Tower on ITV: How many episodes?

The three-part drama has been stripped across the week, with the second instalment having aired a day after the first on Tuesday 9th November at 9pm.

Viewers won't have to wait long for episode three, which airs on Wednesday 10th November at 9pm.

All three episodes were also made available on ITV Hub after the first premiered.

The Tower cast

Gemma Whelan takes on the lead role as Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins, having recently appeared in TV series Frayed as Hannah and having featured in Game of Thrones, Gentleman Jack and Upstart Crow.

She's joined in The Tower cast by the following:

• Lizzie Adama played by Tahirah Sharif (as seen on Casualty, Waterloo Road, Haunting of Bly Manor)
• DI Kieran Shaw played by Emmett J Scanlan (as seen on Hollyoaks, Peaky Blinders, Kin)
• DC Steve Bradshaw played by Jimmy Akingbola (as seen on Cheat, The Most Dangerous Game, In the Long Run)
• DC Jez Vine played by Jim English (as seen on New Blood, Holby City, Coronation Street)
• DCI Tim Bailie played by Karl Davies (as seen on Happy Valley, Brief Encounters, Chernobyl)

The Tower trailer

You can get a first-look at The Tower and all the drama it's set to deliver below...

The Tower plot

The official synopsis for The Tower reads:

“A veteran beat cop and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in south-east London. Left alive on the roof are a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours, Lizzie has disappeared, and Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins is charged with leading the investigation. She not only has to track down Lizzie before she comes to serious harm, but also to uncover the truth behind the grisly deaths.”

Speaking on the conception of the series, writer Kate said: “Within a matter of weeks [of joining the police] I was writing - not for publication, but because I just had to get down on paper the world I encountered: its complexity, laughter, loyalty, the moral conflicts and the dangers that were not only physical.

“Policing showed me London in a way no other job could. The product of this experience was my first novel, Post Mortem.”

The Tower book series comes in three parts with Death Message and Gallowstree Lane being the subsequent novels after the initial Post Mortem. Crime drama fanatics may make an eager dash to their local bookshop for hints as to the plotline and any following twists and turns...

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