ITV Announce New Drama, Identity

ITV have announced that Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes will lead the cast for their brand new drama, Identity.

Identity, a new six part ITV drama series starring Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes, follows an elite police unit formed to combat the explosion of identity-related crime.

Ed Whitmore’s newly created Identity is here to tackle the darker side of reinvention: murderers who literally take other people’s lives, criminals who create new personas to escape evil pasts, impostors who look, talk and sound just like us but would kill you in a heartbeat.

The unit, lead by DSI Martha Lawrence, (Keeley Hawes – Ashes to Ashes, Mutual Friends), works any case where making an identification is a significant part of solving the crime by outsmarting, hunting down and unmasking the modern day Jekyll and Hydes.

DSI Lawrence is also the founder of the unit – which she fought long and hard for – and its perilous fate is a constant source of anxiety to her. She knows she took a gamble in hiring DI Michael Bloom, played by Aidan Gillen (The Wire, Queer as Folk) – the secret weapon of the Identity Unit. Crucially, Bloom is an ex-undercover cop so he knows first hand what it’s like to pretend to be someone you are not. He’s also only too aware of how easy it is to lose your own identity when you’re living a lie.

Holly Aird (Torn, Waking the Dead) is Tessa Stein, IT expert in everything from trawling databases to cracking security codes. Completing the team are DS Anthony Wareing (Shaun Parkes – Moses Jones, Harley Street), who has his eye on promotion and a stance on cases that can err on the self-righteous, and DC Jose Rodriguez (Elyes Gabel – Waterloo Road, Deadset) cocky, self-assured yet with a seriousness and sensitivity that gives him insight into cases. As the series unfolds, DS Wareing becomes more and more concerned about Bloom’s methods and frustrated by what he sees as Martha’s blind and foolish indulgence of him.

Kate Bartlett, Controller of Drama at ITV Studios, says: “This is a unique crime series, with an exciting cast, that explores the theme of identity. The psychology behind the issue of identity opens up a whole world of stories. We take for granted that people are who they say they are and a person’s ID is sacred. However, when that trust is violated it can provoke a special kind of fear, one that cuts to the heart of our sense of self and the world around us.”

Identity is currently filming in and around London.

Identity is an ITV Studios production. Written and created by Ed Whitmore (He Kills Coppers, Waking the Dead), also written by Clive Bradley (City of Vice) and Edward Bennett (Waking the Dead), produced by Lachlan MacKinnon (City of Vice) and directed by Brendan Maher (Spooks). Kate Bartlett (Gunrush) is the executive producer.