Excellent news out of the UK Friday with the announcement by ITV that the brilliant Sally Wainwright police procedural series, Scott and Bailey, has been commissioned for a fourth series. Production will begin in Spring 2014. Based on an idea by Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay, who plays Bailey’s sister Alison in the drama, Scott and Bailey follows two female detectives who are part of the Major Incident Team (i.e. murder investigation, etc.) in Manchester.
 

Wainwright, who also wrote Last Tango in Halifax, which will have its U.S. premiere on PBS beginning September 8, will also executive produce the new series which has not only become one of ITV’s most popular dramas (ok, it’s hasn’t entered Downton Abbey territory just yet) but has also become a favorite in the States as being authentic, pure and simple. It’s dark, gritty and humorous, at times. This is neither Luther, which is the definition of dark and gritty, nor is it Rizzoli & Isles. It’s real.

For series 4, Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones will reprise their roles as Janet Scott and Rachel Bailey with the great Amelia Bullmore not only returning as DCI Gill Murray but expected to write four of the scripts for the new series. While series 3 has already transmitted in the UK, it has yet to premiere on public television in the States, so we’ll begrudgingly resist the temptation to talk about it other than to say it only massively ramps up the real factor and that guest star Nicola Walker (Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax) is off the charts brilliant. But, we can show the promo…
 

 
So, if in the UK, sleep well with the knowledge that there will be more come Autumn 2014, most likely, while U.S. fans of the series get set for series 3 also knowing there will be more S&B greatness.