Grantchester favourite's brand new BBC crime drama finally confirms air date

Robson Green's new BBC crime drama The Northumbria Mysteries has finally been handed a start date – and it's coming later this month.

The Grantchester favourite leads the North East-set detective series as Joe Ruby, an ex-convict and gambler with links to the criminal underworld who finds himself drawn into solving crimes.

He is paired with Liz White's DI Rose O'Connell, an Oxford-educated detective, in an odd-couple partnership set against Northumberland's coast and market towns.

The series is set to arrive on BBC One at 2pm on Friday 23 October 2026.

On filming in the region he hails from, Green said (via BBC News): "[The landmarks] are absolutely astonishing and give us all comfort when we're there and I think that will really, really help the drama.

"Northumberland, the landscape in itself, is a principal character."

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The drama will get a partial boxset release on BBC iPlayer, where the first four episodes will be available to stream from launch day. The rollout for further episodes is still to be confirmed.

Green remains best known to recent audiences as DI Geordie Keating in Grantchester, the long-running detective drama he has fronted alongside a succession of crime-solving clergymen.

He returns as Keating for Grantchester's 11th and final series, which is expected in 2027.

Liz White, meanwhile, is a familiar face from Life on Mars, in which she played WPC Annie Cartwright, as well as Agatha Christie's Seven Dials and Call the Midwife.

The Northumbria Mysteries is part of the BBC's North East Creative Cluster, a programme intended to boost investment, production activity and skills in the English region.

The Northumbria Mysteries is on BBC One at 2pm on Friday 23 October. Stream on iPlayer from the same date.

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Authors

David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.