Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar return for another instalment of the hit ITV crime drama: Unforgotten

No, we’re not talking about the BBC’s shiny new crime drama Virdee (although it, too, fits that description), which starts this week, but rather the welcome return of an old favourite.

Unforgotten may have lost its original star, Nicola Walker (DCI Cassie Stuart), but its sparkle and appeal remains. During the last run, Sinead Keenan settled into the role of DCI Jessica ‘Jessie’ James, who replaced Cassie as the head of a cold case unit. It’s never easy to take over from a much-loved character, but she managed it with aplomb.

“I was very, very relieved with the feedback, and people were incredibly kind and generous,” says Keenan when asked about the response to her first series as the show’s lead. “I couldn’t have asked for better, really, in terms of response, because I know it’s a big ask of an audience for a show that has such a committed and dedicated following, for them to suddenly get on board with somebody new, particularly when their beloved character has been killed, and they’re expected to follow on through with some new interloper. So I was very pleased and delighted with the response, which was thankfully overwhelmingly positive.”

The story picks up with Jessie and co six months on from the preceding season, and although her home life, involving her cheating husband Steve, is still in flux, she and her sidekick Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) are getting on like a house on fire.

“I feel like they’re definitely sucking on diesel, as they say,” claims Keenan. “They obviously don’t yet have the long-standing partnership Sunny and Cassie did, but they’ve got their own little groove going now, and I think they genuinely respect and like each other, and hopefully that continues.”

The pair will have to be on the same page if they’re going to successfully close their latest case.

“We find what appears to be a body part in Whitney Marsh, and Dr Balcombe very quickly surmises that this is fairly recent, and this body part has been dismembered,” explains Keenan. “So then we carry out a further search, and sure enough, we find that it’s a body of a man who seems to have collected a certain amount of enemies throughout his life.

“You’re gradually introduced to four main suspects, who appear to be such a disparate group of people. But then, the further we go, the more we find out how they’re all possibly linked or intertwined, and how each of them could easily have done the deed.”

As usual, the series is packed with great guest stars, including MyAnna Buring and Victoria Hamilton. Watch out too for Maximilian Fairley, an autistic actor at the start of his career. He plays Marty, a neurodivergent character who may know more about the case than he’s letting on.

“I have to say, everyone was brilliant this year,” says Keenan. “In those interview scenes, you are up close and personal, watching some brilliant actors do their thing. But watching and acting with Victoria Hamilton was quite something. She is so brilliant and so lovely with it. That was a real pleasure. I was very lucky. ”

And so will we be as the tale unfolds… Don’t miss the second episode, which airs on Monday.