In the Dark, BBC One

This year, the BBC has given us a spate of female lead home-grown thrillers which have resulted in brilliant, edge-of-your seat shows such as The Replacement and Apple Tree Yard.

This week the BBC is releasing another short drama with a forceful female-led in In The Dark, a four-part series adapted by Bafta-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst (Ordinary Lies, The Driver, Shameless) from two best-selling books by novelist Mark Billingham, In the Dark and Time of Death.

Set in the North of England (just like the BBC's recent gruelling drama Broken ), In The Dark follows Detective Inspector Helen Weeks (MyAnna Buring).

Weeks has to return to her loathed rural home town of Polesford, Derbyshire with her partner, and fellow detective Paul (Ben Batt) where two girls have been abducted. The man who has been arrested is married to Helen's childhood best friend, Linda Bates (Emma Fryer).

The local police force finds itself bending under huge pressure to 'get their man' – a recurring trope in British crime dramas (from Broadchurch to Line of Duty that makes you worry how often this happens in real life) – but it's unclear as to whether the man arrested is guilty of the crime. Meanwhile, Linda has been drawn into the centre of the media storm and Helen is desperate to prove herself Linda's knight in shining armour, which is odd considering she's been avoiding Polesford for years.

Could she be sitting on a dark secret? Almost inevitably.