ITV police drama DCI Banks starring Stephen Tompkinson recommissioned for third series

Stephen Tompkinson who is getting another run as DCI Banks as the show has been recommissioned. (PA)

Stephen Tompkinson is getting another run as DCI Banks as the show has been recommissioned.

ITV has announced a third outing for the drama which sees Tompkinson play the detective created by novelist Peter Robinson.

ITV's director of drama commissioning Steve November said: "DCI Banks has become a firm favourite amongst the ITV Drama audience and I'm very pleased we have commissioned a third series. The new stories will pose searching questions for Banks as ultimately he's forced to take extreme action to keep his team together."

The show will dedicate two episodes each to three stories based on the books and are called Wednesday's Child, Piece Of My Heart and Bad Boy.

Wednesday's Child follows a child abduction by a couple posing as social workers, Piece Of My Heart is about a dead journalist and a mysterious death connected to a cult band, and Bad Boy sees Banks' own daughter in danger.

Joining Tompkinson back on set will be Andrea Lowe whose character DS Annie Cabbot is returning from maternity leave and trying to decide whether a romantic relationship with Banks could work.

Caroline Catz is also back as the blunt DI Helen Morton and this series introduces Banks' teenage daughter Tracy, a university dropout.

Filming begins in August in Yorkshire.

PA