Stefanie Martini is taking the reins on the character that helped make Helen Mirren famous. According to Deadline, Martini will play a young Jane Tennison in ITV’s new series “Tennison.” Mirren played the character, a British police officer, in “Prime Suspect,” created by Lynda La Plante.
The six-part series, Deadline says, “portrays the young Tennison at the beginning of her career, revealing how and why she became such a complex and formidable character in the Metropolitan Police. La Plante came up with the idea for a prequel series based on her latest novel of the same name which will be published last year. Set in the 1970s, as female police constables are being uneasily ‘integrated’ into the force, the story introduces 22-year-old Jane, a probationary officer in a world where high-ranking male officers were notoriously chauvinistic.”
“Single-minded and ambitious, if a touch naïve,’ Deadline continues, “her dedicated and instinctive approach to her career is evident from the start. She is thrown in at the deep end, drawn into a brutal murder investigation, and experiences first-hand London’s violent criminal ganglands. Tennison works alongside senior investigating officer DCI Bradfield, and sees the devastating effects violent crime has on the victim’s family, as well as experiencing tragic ramifications herself.”
Martini has appeared in “Doctor Thorne” and “Emerald City.”