Prime Locks Up Arresting UK Drama

Prime has awarded a BBC daytime drama a primetime run.

It will premiere The Coroner on July 22, in a 7.30 Saturday slot.

In the UK, the BBC commissioned the gentle crime drama to help shake up its daytime schedule.

Written by soap vet Sally Abbott (Casualty, EastEnders), it stars Claire Goose (Unforgotten, The Bill) as a solicitor who returns to her small seaside home town after 20 years to become its coroner.

“The world of the show wraps around you in much the same way Lovejoy’s Suffolk did back in the 80s,” said The Guardian.

“How I miss Lovejoy. That combination of humour, warmth and dramatic tension is incredibly difficult to pull off without at least one element suffering.

“But Abbott has hit the sweet spot here when it comes to creating a world I want to believe and spend time in.”

The Coroner was popular enough to be renewed and should appeal to fans of another BBC daytime drama that Prime’s aired in peak hour, Father Brown.

Meanwhile, TVNZ 1’s daytime Irish crime drama, Red Rock (1pm weekdays), is about to get a late-night re-run.

Said the Daily Mail: “Red Rock combines the ropey, soapy style of lunchtime drama with the windswept charm of rural detective shows such as Shetland and Vera. It’s a thumping good plot. And that’s all we demand: everything else is forgivable, even expected.”

Amazon picked up the US streaming rights for the 40 hour-long episodes, which the BBC also airs in daytime.

They will screen post-1am Sundays and Mondays from July 23.