Unforgotten confirms air date for season 5 – first without Nicola Walker

The new season will premiere on ITV1 and ITVX on Monday 27th February, meaning that our Monday evenings are set to get a whole lot more eventful. While yet to be confirmed, we can assume that the drama will return to its usual 9pm slot.

Unforgotten season 5 picks up with a brand new lead after Walker's Cassie Stuart died at the end of season 4. Playing new DCI Jessica James, Keenan will see her first day in her new job clouded by an unforeseen and devastating introduction to her family life.

Not only does she have the majorly big boots of Stuart to fill, will she be in the right frame of mind to navigate a new team and her first mysterious case?

She'll have to investigate the discovery of human remains in a newly-renovated period property in Hammersmith, London. But is this really a murder dating back to the 1930s, or could we be looking at a more recent case?

The release date news comes after a slew of exciting spoiler images, which show Keenan hard at work alongside Sanjeev Bhaskar's popular returning character DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan.

The cast of Unforgotten season 5 includes Rhys Yates (Silent Witness), Martina Laird (The Bay), Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones), Max Rinehart (Jekyll and Hyde), and Hayley Mills (Pollyanna).

The beloved cold case investigations team will also be returning with Jordan Long and Carolina Main reprising their roles as DS Murray Boulting and DC Fran Lingley respectively, as well as Georgia Mackenzie as pathologist Dr Leanne Balcombe, Michelle Bonnard as Sunny’s partner Sal, and Pippa Nixon as DC Karen 'Kaz' Willets.

Read more:

• Unforgotten star not returning for season 5: “I’m gutted to miss out”
• Nicola Walker feels "guilty" about how depressing Unforgotten exit was

When her casting was previously announced in March 2022, BAFTA-nominated Keenan said: "I have long been an admirer of Chris Lang’s [creator] work so I am absolutely delighted to be joining the Unforgotten team.

"I’m very much looking forward to working with the extraordinary cast led by the brilliant and incredibly lovely Sanjeev Bhaskar. And I’m hoping that if I play my cards right I might even get to take a peek in Sunny’s backpack!”

Unforgotten season 5 will air on ITV1 and ITVX on Monday 27th February 2023, and all four previous seasons are currently available to stream on ITVX.

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