Written and created by Ben Richards, Showtrial was a thrilling, mysterious legal drama that kept us compelled in October 2021. The series will be back next year, and we already know it stars Adeel Akhtar, Nathalie Armin and Michael Socha. The team is now adding Joe Dempsie, Francesca Annis, Nina Toussaint-White and Fisayo Akinade.
When the high-profile climate activist Marcus Calderwood is left for dead in a violent hit and run, he uses his dying moments to identify his killer — a serving policeman. But who is this unnamed "Officer X"? What does his own history reveal about the nature of trauma and revenge, and was Marcus’s death a careless accident or cold-blooded murder?
From the victim's last breath to the jury’s final verdict, Showtrial takes us into the worlds of the charismatic and cocky officer Justin Mitchell (Socha); Sam Gill (Akhtar), an anxious defense solicitor with a reputation for winning lost causes; and Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Armin), a rigorous CPS lawyer leading the case against the accused.
As public outrage reaches fever-pitch, Showtrial questions what happens when a trial is dominated by contentious issues and whether the truth is ever clear cut. Is a fair trial possible when tensions are riding so high?
Showtrial will return in 2024.