JK Rowling’s Strike debuts on TV tonight and here is what you need to know

JK Rowling’s crime drama about irascible investigator Cormoran Strike is about to make it’s debut on Sunday night television.

Beginning with part one of the novel series, The Cuckoo’s Calling, tonight, it marks another screen success for the author whose globally famous Harry Potter novels have since been transformed into a major movie franchise.

For viewers who have yet to read the Strike books, written under Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith, here is what you need to know:

:: The London-based detective is played by Tom Burke, with The Borgias star Holliday Grainger starring as his fiery Yorkshire-born assistant, Robin Ellacott.

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:: While first impressions between the pair are frosty, their work together leads to a close and trusting bond which verges on the edge of something more.

:: Son of a famous rock star, Strike was previously a soldier who lost his leg while fighting in Afghanistan.

:: Viewers meet Strike following a break-up with his girlfriend that has left him penniless and effectively homeless, sleeping on a pop-up bed in his office.

:: The three-part run will recount the first Strike instalment, which sees the detective duo hired to uncover the truth behind the death of supermodel Lula Landry, who fell from a Mayfair balcony.

:: The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first in the Cormoran Strike trilogy, published in 2013 and followed by The Silkworm and Career of Evil.

:: Strike will broadcast on BBC One at 9.05pm on Sunday.