TWENTY-six years after viewers were first introduced to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, ITV brings us Prime Suspect: 1973 – a six-part show focused on the young version of the Lynda La Plante-created character made famous by Helen Mirren as she embarks on her police career in deepest darkest Hackney.
If you squint while mentally scraping away 18 years of on-the-job seasoning with broken bodies, bloody crime scenes, too many late nights and copious amounts of booze and fags, there's a glimmer of resemblance between Stefanie Martini's doe-eyed WPC and Helen Mirren's flinty murder cop.
Tennison's first big case is assisting DI Len Bradfield (Sam Reid) with a murder inquiry regarding the death of a teenage prostitute. Will the naive but perceptive WPC be side-lined or will this be the start of her resentment-generating rise up the ranks?
Based on La Plante's 2015 novel Tennison, some of the themes explored in her original Prime Suspect are touched upon – sexism, violence against women, police problems with work/life balance – but judging by its opening episode, PS:1973 is going to be much more Life on Mars in tone than its notoriously uber-serious award-winning progenitor.
The cast includes a few familiar faces (distractingly so, in the case of Inbetweeners man Blake Harrison) and the period detailing is decent, give or take the odd dodgy wig and suspiciously narrow lapel.
Definitely worth investigating.
:: Thursday March 2, ITV1, 9pm
